Predictably Random

Fiction: Hell can wait!

2012-03-05T03:16:00.001-08:00

The Writers' Circle is back and this time we are trying our hands at fiction.
I have given this a tentative title for now, but would welcome any suggestions.

Hell can wait

He opened his eyes and found himself standing in front of a huge gate. It took him a few moments to realise what was happening. He had been dead for only a couple of minutes but it felt like eternity. He wasn't sure what would happen next.

And then he saw some one approaching him from behind the gates. It was a welcome sight to see another 'person' and suddenly he realised that he must be standing at the gates of heaven. "So this is how it all ends, at least I am in front of heaven." He felt happy.

The Apsaras were all excited too, at the thought of having a chef come and stay with them.
“Finally I can learn how to make perfect souffles!” Thought one of them.

But the chef was being told some thing else by the gate keeper “ You know we would love to have you here in heaven but although you have done a lot of good deeds by pleasing a lot of people through your food, there is one thing that is preventing you from making heaven your home.

You have broken a lot of hearts through that program on TV, where you judge a cooking competition. Your caustic remarks and harsh language made half of those aspiring chefs to abandon their dreams and some were so depressed after that competition, that they thought they were good for nothing.

But you are still being given a chance. We have arranged a similar test for you where you have to cook something with the given conditions. If you succeed you may enter heaven, otherwise the other world is waiting for you. But you are used to Hell’s kitchen arent you?"

The chef smiled, after all this was something he did every waking moment of his life. How hard can it be?

He was then led onto the kitchen area. Everything looked different. It reminded him of his long lost & forgotten village kitchen where his grandmother used to cook. There was nothing he could identify with, no non stick cookware, no ovens, no gadgets, not even a proper sink! He was handed a sheet of paper with instructions and was left alone.

"Cook something savoury using Chickpea flour and the other things provided." Said the sheet. He looked around for other ingredients and found a tray with some basic essentials but only a few teaspoons of oil. So frying was out of question. He looked around and could see only one sauce pan, a few spoons, a few plates and a small herb garden. For once, he was stumped for ideas. His mind went blank and he could not think of anything at all.

As he gathered himself and started to think, all ideas he came up with, required elaborate ingredients and costly gadgets. While he was looking for a way out, his thoughts kept returning to one student who he had criticised a lot. He would always look lost in the plush kitchen of the Chef's culinary school. The student would always make something that his great aunt would make at home for him and the Chef would always ridicule him for that, saying, how did he expect to serve something as plain as Khandvi to the distinguished guests in his 5 start restaurant. His Khandvi had tasted great and was so simple to make though.

"Of course! Thats what I can make now!" He tried to remember what the student had done and how.He quickly gathered everything he needed to make it and went about preparing it. He was just adjusting the coriander garnish, when the gate keeper walked in and asked him to stop, since his time was over. The chef proudly presented his dish and waited for the verdict.

To his own astonishment, he was actually sweating with tension and was really scared of what he would hear about his creation. Is this what the contestants went through while he smugly went on tasting their creations and said whatever came to his mind. Hardly ever appreciating any one, always keeping them on their toes and conveniently ignoring their best efforts?

He looked at the gate keeper's facial expressions for a clue and was even more tensed. He took his time tasting the Khandvi, looked at him one last time and said “ I will let you know the decision but after our special guest has tasted this." As they all looked on, a young boy, no more than 5yrs of age entered the kitchen and went straight for the dish. He took a mouthful and instantly spat it out. The chef could not believe what had happened, a first for him. He was about to give up completely when the boy returned to the plate and carefully picked out the coriander leaves with his fingers, then picked up the 'clean' khandvi and relished it.

He turned to the chef and said " Its delicious but without all the green leaves that you put there for decoration." The decision was made, the chef could stay there but on the one condition that he would cook for them and be prepared for their criticism every day.

India Shining? Definitely!

2012-02-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

This post is a part of what I call a " Writers' Circle". We are a group of friends (some real life, some just online) who write on a common topic every month, in an effort to keep our love for writing alive (At least that is what is behind my posts, a few others do manage to write regularly without having to wait for the compulsion!)

This month's topic chosen by Deepa, was India Shining: 2 Things I like about India and 2 things I would want to change.

As soon as I heard "India Shining", the first person to come to mind was the former Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. For those of you who don't remember his blink-and-miss tenure in the Govt, it was during that time that the phrase "India Shining" was first coined. It has been extensively used by everyone since then, sometimes with proud and sometimes sarcastically.
Since I have been living outside the country for more than 6 years now, this topic is even more significant for me. Overall, I feel that as a country we have come really far and I would consider India's standing in the world as an achievement. Having said that I also realise that there are a lot of avenues that need huge improvements, as would be pointed out by some of those cynics out there. Dont get me wrong, I am very pragmatic when it comes to my thinking and feelings but to just snigger over any comments of development by saying that there are so many things we lack is being very pessimistic, in my opinion.

Now before I get too serious and wander off from the topic let me start with the top 2 things I like about India. It is very tough to choose only 2, but I have tried.

Unity in Diversity - Cliche to some, but absolutely unique according to me. Where else can you see people from so many different backgrounds and culture, living together and flourishing in each other's company by sharing everything. On the last count there were 29 states and 6 Union territories in India. Each with its own culture, heritage, beliefs and language. In fact you would find many different dialects of the same language in a single state. Now add to that the population that India has, and you get numerous combinations of people in any given town/city. Barring a few communal and caste instigated incidents, we do manage to live peacefully with each other, enjoying every festival and every occasion equally. I can go on and on with instances that I have myself seen and experienced about this unity.

Tolerance and Adaptation - I didnt really know how put this one. Let me try. India has always been exposed to various foreign cultures and trends over the years. Now there could have been 2 scenarios with this - either the foreign culture could completely take over or it would be totally rejected keeping in mind the traditional values. But the thing I like very much here, is that we have managed to create a balance between the modern foreign trends and our own traditional values. An average Indian youth wears Levis Jeans, eats at McDonalds, dreams of owning a Mercedes Car, is hooked on to Facebook completely but is still deep rooted in the family values and traditions which we are so proud of.

Now for the things I dont like so much and want them to change

Civic sense in people - I think this would be a classic pet peeve. Why cant we think of others too when we are in public? Why cant all of us make it a point to throw the rubbish in the bins, not spit wherever it pleases us, respect others' right to the road and other public amenities, not always be in a rush and have some patience basically. There is no point in honking your horns when there is a huge queue of vehicles in front of you. If the person in front of you could drive on, he most definitely would. He isnt really interested in camping out in the middle of the road, you know. And then again, if we all were a bit patient and did not cut lanes or force ourselves onto wrong lanes there wouldnt be a traffic jam to start with. So for once, why cant we stop blaming the Govt for everything and start acting responsibly?

Small - no the word I am looking for is trivial - Issues! - There are loads of things, very important and some even very critical that need attention in India, but the majority of our political brigade seems to be concerned with issues that are beyond my realm of understanding (and I am sure lots of others too!) in terms of their significance and importance. We have fights over naming of roads & by lanes, riots over the incidents such as a statue covered in bird poo, endless discussions over what to call the city/town, renaming of airports and other landmarks and not to forget what is being shown on TV & films and their names & songs too! Remember how "Billu Barber" was renamed "Billu" just because the the Barber association did not like it? We have several law suits filed to protest against how some one dresses up, what some public figure said what occasions we celebrate (Valentine's Day for example). Add to that the fuss created by top politicians & celebrities when they are required to go by the rules at airports, Govt offices and other such places and the list can go on.

Let me repeat here that it has been very difficult to limit myself to only 2 things in both the categories because there are a lot of other things I really like and dislike, but that could be material for another post some other time perhaps....

5 Influential Quotes

2011-11-27T09:12:00.001-08:00

Its time for us to get back together again and write about a common topic which for this month is, "5 influential quotes you love & live by". As I love collecting quotes, I jumped at the idea but realised that selecting only 5 out of my collection was really difficult. I have tried to do it anyway, by picking up the ones that apart from being some of my favourites also hold a special meaning for me in some way.

1. Amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic - Source unknown
I love the simplicity of this quote and how easily it puts forth the idea that, just because someone is not a conventional expert about a certain thing, they should not be ridiculed or discouraged. Recently I have started seeing how well this applies practically, whenever Shreya points out something which is so obvious that we later wonder why we didnt think of it!

2. If its not happy, its not the end.
I knew this and lived by it, long before Shahrukh Khan condoned it in 'Om Shanti Om'! Remember this - "Picture abhi baki hai mere dost!"

Again, I don't know the source but this is something I have strongly believed in throughout my life. Some might call this overly optimistic but I sincerely feel that everything will sort out in the end. In fact there was a time when I would refuse to watch those serious 'art movies' where the end used to be left vague with the lead actor and actress going their separate ways, or the frustrated youth either jailed or dead, or the harassed child going on to become a frustrated youth and so on. I always wanted the characters to have a happy ending. Maybe this is the reason I still adore the Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies, where it always ends with all the characters smiling for the camera, everything sorted out and in place for all of them to be happy ever after.

Having said that, I do not live in my own fairy tale world and I do realise that things dont always work out, but the way I look at things is that, whenever it is not working out, it is just a passing phase and eventually everything will be fine.

3. When you look back on life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the one's you did.
This is a classic one, if you ask me and so true as well. There are a lot of things I have wanted to do and whenever I think about them I feel very sad that I didnt pursue them. Even now while I am drafting this, I can hardly recollect anything that I have done & regretted. Of course short term regrets will always be there but you tend to forget them in the long run and what you are left with are the things that you didn't do.

4. Knowledgeis knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
An often repeated quote that I love because of what it implies and of course the Tomato angle gives it a witty edge as well. Surprisingly there are a lot of people who really dont know that Tomato is fruit and not a vegetable!

5. No matter how thinly you slice it, there are always two sides.
My attitude in life exactly! Anything that happens always has 2 aspects to it, you can choose either the positive or the negative one. As I have already demonstrated in one of the earlier quotes, I am the perpetual positive thinking one, which sometimes is annoying to people. But this quote has stood me in good stead and I am always preaching it - there are always two ways to look at things!

There are lots of other quotes I like and I have to mention a few more here.

Everywhere is within walking distance, if you have the time. (Steven Wright)
Our house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.
One’smind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension
Opportunityhas to knock, but it is enough for temptation to stand outside and whistle
Beingright is highly overrated. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day
You can discover what your enemy fears the most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.(Arnold H. Glasow)

Purpose of Life.

2011-10-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

Now thats a topic which should make you think, it sure made me. What is the purpose of my life? Do I even know what I can call a purpose? There are a series of things I would like to do, but do they qualify as the puropose of my life? I dont think so. I believe that the purpose of life should be something that should make you feel absolutely content with life once you achieve it. No more contemplation or struggling and that is hard to achieve in this day and age because our needs and wants are constantly changing.

Having said that, there are people who understand the true purpose of their life early on and work towards achieving it the rest of their lives. Some manage to do it in their lifetime and some are credited of having achieved it after their stint in this world. As for me, I am not in that category as I haven't been able to fathom the purpose of my life yet. There have been events that made me happy and for some duration after those events there was nothing else I wanted - my first job (the look on my dad's face was priceless the day I brought home my first paycheck!), my marriage, birth of my daughter etc. But as I said the satisfaction was only for some time before I started to feel that I want more from life.

That has continued till today and I am nowhere near to finding that elusive purpose or one single objective of my life. I did have 'mini' objectives at different stages of my life. When I was in school the sole purpose was to study hard & get good marks so that the future is secure. Did that help? I am not sure.

Once in college, in addition to the above there was another purpose, of keeping & maintaining the friendships I struck. I am very happy to say that I have been able to manage that even now after all these years and I do consider that as one of my achievements. Didn't some one say that friends are the best investment you make? I totally standby it.

After achieving the education that I set out to achieve, the next big thing of course was the job and again I consider myself fortunate that I got the chance to work in my chosen field for a reputed company and more importantly I thoroughly enjoyed the work and that became my purpose for that phase of my life.

Once I got married and my daughter was born, I think I can say that the only purpose I have now is to give her the kind of upbringing my parents gave me. If she turns out to be an intelligent, independent, tolerant, respective and humble person, I would consider my purpose as being achieved.

But again, is that the purpose of my life? Not really, that may be one of the things I want to achieve in my life but not the sole purpose. Just like many others I will be in search of the purpose of my life and the day I chance upon it will be the most significant day, I am sure. I only hope I realise what it is, before its too late for me to start trying to achieve it!

10 Day You Challenge: 10 Secrets

2011-10-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

The 10 day challenge kicks off, with me writing about my 10 secrets. Now I am not sure if they really are secrets. There will definitely be some people who know all these facts about me, but these are some of the things that I believe are not common knowledge about me, so here it goes in no particular order.

1. I am a huge fan of thriller/detective/murder mystery programmes on TV. I am on a first name basis with Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Barnaby, Inspector George Gently, DCI Banks, Taggart, Lewis, Morse, Foyle, Frost and so on, the list is endless. Give me a murder any time and I am glued to the screen. It need not even be in English, I have even watched Swedish murder mysteries with subtitles and thoroughly enjoyed them. I can watch all the gory details (CSI style!) without wincing even once!

2. I would like to believe that I sing fairly decently. Nothing too classical but I can easily manage the semi classical ones, although I am too conscious to sing in front of others. The only person who has heard me in full swing is my daughter, who has had to put up with my semi classical lullabies when I used to sing to her during her bedtime right until she was 3 yrs old, that was the only 'riyaz' I got :)

3. I have a habit of talking to myself all the time. Although I tend to do it in my mind, some times I am quite loud even without realising it. I discuss pros and cons of things with myself, remimnd myself about important events/things, repeat instructions etc and generally behave as if there was was someone with me.

4. Another thing that I do very often to kill time while I am out and have got nothing to do, is play Antakshari with myself. I sing a song in my mind and continue with another song starting with the last letter of the previous song. We took it a bit too far once when I and my friend P played Antakshari during a Physics test, for which we were not prepared at all. So when the question paper was given, after about 10-15 minutes we had written all we could but had to pass time for the next 2 and a half hours before the the test got over. Luckily we were seated one after the other and we would quietly whisper the last letter of the song that we would have just finished singing in the mind and the other would continue. I know, it sounds absolutely crazy and thats what we were then!

5. I am a big movie fan and know the dialogues of most of the Hindi films that I have seen including Sholay, Chupke Chupke, Andaz Apna Apna, Bawarchi, Hum aapke hain kaun, Gulam, nearly all Govinda movies, Agnipath, Deewar, Don, nearly all Bacchan movies too and so on. Actually I should mention here that I do watch a lot of movies so the list would be quite long. In fact, I and my brother have this ongoing challenge wherein we use a dialogue from any movie while talking normally and the other peson has to instantly recognise which movie it was. We can hold a complete conversation using only the dialogues from movies and no other words.

6. Talking of Hindi movies I am a die hard fan of Salman Khan. There I have admitted it in print now! I have been teased all my life for this and especially when he is in the news for all the wrong things. I am very protective about this and can not take anyone saying anything bad about him, maybe thats why I get teased all the time! I feel equally protective about Sachin tendulkar who happens to be my favourite sports personality. I get furious when people equate him to God, yet wouldnt think twice before rubbishing him for getting a low score or accuse him of taking away all the credit sometimes.

7. Although I like things neat and tidy, I am very bad at clearing clutter. I collect all sorts of things and can not bring myself to throw away anything even if it is no longer in use. I still have my daughter's clothes from when she was a baby, of course sentiment plays a very important role here, but apart from that I also have my own clothes from long back which dont even fit me any more. In the kitchen, even after I get a replacement for some thing, I am very reluctant to throw away the original one, specially if its in a working condition. I stash such things away to be used in an 'emergency'! GM is really annoyed by this habit of mine as all these 'useless' things take up a lot of space in the house but I keep telling him that we might need them some day.

8. It might be slightly hard to believe if you see me now, but I have been very much into sports throughout my school/college life. My favourite sport to play is Cricket and if you are one of those people who have raised their eyebrows at this, yes one more time, I do play cricket and not just watch it! In fact my brother who is now an accomplished player and happens to be in his Company team, has learnt the basics from me way back when we were 12-15 yrs old. I have also been a Kho Kho and Kabaddi player on the zonal level and have won medals for long jump too.

9. There was a time when I could recite the whole of Bhagvad Gita. I was a Sanskrit student in school and I had learnt it to take part in an elocution competition.

10. I hate getting facials done at a beauty parlour. Apart from not liking them I am also sort of allergic to them. Till date I have had it done only 2 times in my life and both the times, my face broke out into pimples after 1-2 days of the treatment. I only tried it the second time because my friend and colleague managed to convince me that it was completely herbal and had no chemicals in it. The result was the same and now I am on a vow never to try them again. Home made face packs or even the ones available in shops such as Everyuth and Cuticura are different but I hardly have time for them anymore.

So these were 10 facts/secrets about me. Next Sunday I will be writing about the 9 loves of my life.

10 Day You Challenge

2011-10-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

There will be no use giving excuses or explaining the absence inspite of claiming otherwise in my earlier posts, so I will get straight to the point and once again mention that this time I will be writing regularly. What is so different about this claim when compared to the earlier ones? This time I have a bunch of friends to motivate me, some of whom I havent met at all but we share a liking for writing.

As an engineer I have noticed that I work better with deadlines. I dont know if this is something general applicable to all engineers or if its just me but somehow when I have been given an 'assignment' and told to complete it by a certain time, I really get working! So I thought of giving myself a project to do and just so that I dont take it lightly, I am setting a deadline as well!

This challenge has been doing the rounds of the blogosphere and I thought why not? So here am I writing about myself using the guidelines provided in this challenge. It is pretty straight forward and clear in the the above image. Everyday I have to write about a topic, giving my list of the specific subject. Now I dont want to send this blog into a shock by writing everyday as opposed to just 'opening' it once a month, so I have decided to have a gap between the posts. I will be posting every Sunday.

My first post for this series will be published on Sunday, the 23rd.

Another revival....

2010-05-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

This blog has seen too many revivals or rather the attempts, so this might not be taken very seriously but there is something which doesnt let me leave this in oblivion. I am now busy with my other blog, which is doing quite well, if I say so myself but I can never forget that my blogging started with this one.

This was supposed to be my space where I could write about anything that came to mind, about things that were important to me, my likes & dislikes and so on. But life got busy and when handling the food blog itself started getting difficult, this was promptly forgotten. But not any more.

This is it! I might sound like one of the aged Bollywood stars trying to make a comeback again & again, but this time I am here to stay!

Coming back from India

2008-06-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

I am back from India & no I didnt get the Shammi Kapoor DVDs as I had planned. The main reason being lack of time to go looking for it and also I observed when we were there that S has started making a fuss about eating even if we try to distract her with Shammi Kapoor or any one else for that matter!

Its always the same when you are leaving for India and also when you are coming back from India. Whether you get a days notice or you know months in advance the packing will always be done at the last minute. There always will be a struggle to fit in everything in the bags taking into account the weight limitation. While going its the presents/gifts etc and while coming back it will be the odd masalas/papads/eatables and anything that you think you wont get the same as in India (I bring back bottles of Silk n Shine conditioner everytime!) . Theres always something or the other that is left behind either because you forgot about it or the weight limitation. Its only been a month since I came back and I already have a list ready for my parents who will be coming shortly!

Thank You Shammi Kapoor

2008-04-29T13:17:00.001-07:00

for making my daughter finish her dinner without any fuss and in record time i.e. 15 min flat!

Meal times are testing times for us, testing patience that is. S may be very hungry but she will still take her own sweet time to eat. Sometimes not even finishing completely. But again whenever her food is completely over, some of it has been spilled by her active hands, some spit out while trying to 'speak' something.

On Saturday, while channel surfing, GM came across the movie 'Teesri Manzil' and we had it switched on while we embarked on the task of feeding S. To my surprise she was completely drawn to the movie and while she watched wide eyed, I gave her spoons after spoons of her food and she ate without any fuss. Then when I paid attention, I saw that she was actually interested in watching Shammi Kapoor with those characteristic moves.

Most of the eating was done during the 'Aaja Aaja main hun pyar tera' song. But Shammi Kapoor was the only one who interested her. Whenever he was not on the screen and Asha Parekh took his place she would look at me questioningly. Sorry Ms Parekh nothing against you, but my daughter just prefers Shammi Kapoor.

Now I channel surf in search of a Shammi Kapoor movie before every meal. Maybe I should just get some DVDs on my next trip to India.

Harry Potter & the Order of Phoenix

2008-04-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

I know I am a little, (maybe not so little) late in reviewing this movie now. But I only managed to watch it now. I am only glad that I got to watch it at one go instead of parts, as has become the habit nowadays with little S playing around vying for our attention.

Both me & GM are complete movie buffs. We can watch any movie at least once and then there are some which we see again & again. Earlier our count for the week used to exceed 8 even 10 sometimes. But these days its very difficult to manage even one movie in a week and even if we do its only on the weekend.

So we saw 'Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix' on Friday and.....I don't know if I liked this or not. If you see the individual movie its very good but when you have the other Harry Potter movies to compare it lacks the lustre.

Whenever we are watching a movie which is based on any book, it always happens that GM has watched the movie already and I have read that particular book. But in this case I haven't read any of the Potter books (I am intending to read them now). So I don't know if the movie completely adheres to the plot in the book, but its not substantial. The special effects and 'the edge of the seat' moments are still present and the movie manages to get you hooked completely but there still is something which is missing.

Coming to the actors, I really miss the cute little Daniel Radcliffe(Harry Potter), could not come to terms with the teenager version :) He is looking good and has acted well too but it did not work for me. Rupert Grint (Ron Weasely) lacks his usual effervescence and looks a little subdued. Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) happens to be the only one who retains her original charm in the movie.

To summarise it, as I have mentioned earlier, a good movie if you don't want to compare it with the earlier ones.

The First Step....

2008-03-27T02:11:00.000-07:00

Oh yes! This time it is about my baby :) who is already 10 months old!

Time really flies....It just seems like yesterday when I shared the good news with everyone, flew back to India with my mom to have the baby, was pampered to the max by both our sets of parents, had a lot of functions, registered with the Hospital etc. I was excited, happy, nervous, apprehensive all at the same time about being a mother. And the same goes for the hubby, maybe a little more of each of the emotions, as he had to think about me as well :)

So it has been more than a year now and I was thinking about putting down the events on this blog but never got around to it since I had no time at all! Actually I didn't seem to have time for anything. The whole day just passed by and all I did was to run after my daughter S. But by now, I am used to managing multiple things at a time :) So as I write this I have her on my lap and I am trying to put her to sleep which is a major task by itself!

I have started reading books again and writing again. In fact I have just started a food blog as well. Its fun to work in the kitchen while S is playing there with all the utensils & empty dabbas and making a lot of noise. Of course its a lot of work to clean up the mess later on. She is constantly talking in her baby language as if she is telling me something, actually narrating & pointing here & there.

She had started standing up on her own last month & we were very happy about it. Then within the next 2-3 days she started walking with support holding anything & everything that came into her tiny cute hands, the sofa, table, chair, the wall or even our legs :) But last week she actually walked without any support. It was only 2-3 steps but she officially started walking! I had always heard about this being an exciting development but actually experienced it when I saw S walking. I had tears in my eyes, partly out of happiness and partly because of the sad realisation that my little baby has now grown up.

We spend the first twelve months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next twelve telling them to sit down and shut up.

I had come across this quote somewhere long back and had liked it very much. But I am now understanding the real meaning and S is not even 12 months old! She already roams around the house taking those very cute, now I am confident now I am going to fall, baby steps and I have to keep running after her, telling her not to go into the bathroom, not to trip on one of her toys, not to touch the heater radiator, not to climb on the table or chairs & so on.

Now I am waiting for her to speak her first word ( In a language that we can understand :)) I wonder what that will be.....

And it rained....

2007-02-12T04:19:00.000-08:00

Its raining! I mean...actually raining here, not just drizzling and its beautiful. Another of nature's wonders! The view from the window is nothing great as such but I love it nevertheless. I can see a tree in the distance and for some reason I seem to connect with it. I have seen it now for the past 3 months in various circumstances...when its bright & sunny, when its snowing heavily, when its just cloudy & gloomy and now when its raining heavily. I see that the tree looks the same in all these climates if seen alone but the moment you take in the climate in the background, you get a whole new picture every time.

When its cloudy, it seems to be sad; when its sunny, the branches seem to look up towards the sun; when its snowing the tree is totally covered & its as if the snow is a part of the tree. Now when its raining it just seems to be enjoying the downpour just as I would have if it wasn’t so cold outside!

Although right now, the tree has nothing but bare branches, it still looks beautiful to me and I am waiting for spring, (as I am sure the tree would be too) so that I get to see another beautiful aspect of nature's wonders!

(Weather) it will rain or not!

2007-01-16T01:34:00.000-08:00

Well, to continue with where I left last time, I will now try to describe the weather here in London. I think the title of the post says it all! It really is rainy throughout the year & you are never sure when its going to rain.

As usual I go comparing with the Bombay weather which I was used to & which was quite regular & routine. By that I mean you can define that it will be hot in some particular months, & rain during some specific months. I wont say Bombay has a winter season...:) Actually even here you can be pretty sure about the cold & when it is going to be pleasant or a little warmer. But the one thing that you can never predict is the rains. One minute it is bright & sunny and the next it starts drizzling. Oh...yes I wouldnt call them 'rains' here, as I am accustomed to the heavy rainfalls of Bombay where the whole city would get flooded inspite of the drainage system in place.So all you get in London is a drizzle..meaning you cant say its not raining but at the same time its nothing much. But it is bothersome nevertheless.

But the commendable part is the weather forecast system these guys have here. The BBC site gives out accurate forecast with the timing! And believe it or not it is correct almost always. So if I check the site for the forecast in the morning, I know that it is going to rain at about 2 in the afternoon & avoid going out at that time. If the site mentions that it is going to be sunny by 4 o'clock the same day, it does happen. For someone who is used to jokes targetting the meteorological Dept in India, this was an amazing discovery.

Then theres the cold....starting from September lasting till even March/April. The cold was at its peak when I first came here in December. So naturally I was hoping that I would get to see some snowfall (Not just hoping I was quite eager for it!).But apart from some stray flakes falling down in Dec end, there was nothing much. Finally got to see some substantial snow (not 'snowfall' but 'some snow', mind you) in the month of March, now thats when the cold is supposed to be subsiding!

Having lived in Delhi for more than 10 years, I didnt have much of a problem adjusting to the cold here. But yes getting ready to go out somewhere is really tedious what with all the 'gear' you have to don - sweater, jacket, hat, gloves, scarf, socks, shoes, the list goes on. Finally once you are ready, you almost feel like an astronaut going for a space mission!

Summer is the best time to be around here. The weather is warm & pleasant. There are flowers all around you. London has a lot of gardens & parks and July/Aug is the best time to visit them. They are all bursting with flowers of all imaginable colours, greenary all around and a general cheerful atmosphere. The best thing would be a walk along the river Thames in the evening. This is my favourite part of London anyway, even if it is biting cold! The next would be a cruise in the river...

I am now experiencing my second winter here in London and its no different from last year. We still havent seen any snow for this season and it rains anytime. Infact its a very cloudy dull day today & it has been drizzling since morning....typical British weather, they say.

The 'Substantial' one!

2007-01-10T01:52:00.000-08:00

I am back with what I called a 'substantial' post in my last post. Well, I gave it a lot of thought about what to write & then decided to go ahead with the things that I would have written if I had persued this Blog when I had first thought of it. That was last year when I had recently moved to London after my marriage and didnt have too much to do with my spare time. The blog didnt materialise & I ended up whiling away the time surfing the internet & god knows what.

I still remember the day we landed in Heathrow & were driving down towards the house. The city didnt seem very alien to me & I almost felt at home instantly. The roads, traffic etc seemed a lot like Bombay only without the chaos and the pollution. This was the first thing I noticed as it was already dark by then. In many ways I always tend to compare London with Bombay & find both the cities very similar to each other, ofcourse London is a little more refined as in it is more organised.

It has been more than a year for me here now, but I still see & think about the analogies between the two cities. For one, both the cities are home to a lot of diverse people. In Bombay you will find representatives from each state of the country. There are Gujratis, South Indians, Bengalis, Punjabis...practically everyone. Similarly in London you will find people of almost all Nationalities. Indians, Pakistanis, Polish, Americans, Germans, Chinese...again practically everyone.

Then theres the food. You can find almost all the international cuisines easily here in London as you would in Bombay (international as well as national). Then theres the public transport angle. The local trains, called the Tube here, are so similar to the local trains in Bombay or should I say it the other way..:) In more than one ways the Bombay local trains structure seems to have been built on the same model as is the Tube here. The first time that I went inside a station, I found the platform uncannily similar to the ones in Bombay, maybe cleaner, but nevertheless. But then there are some differences as well. The crowd for example. No its not at all lesser than Bombay, infact much more if thats possible. But the crowd behaviour is so mature & organised that you dont feel the stress of travelling as you would in Bombay. I still remember those days when I used to struggle to get into the train during peak hours & barely managed to hold on to a bar, handle or anything that I could get hold of till I reached Dadar from Ghatkopar. Because of that even that 15 minutes journey seemed like a big deal & was very tiring & exhausting. Repeating the same feat in the evening after you have worked the whole of the day was just a nightmare.

But here the crowd is more managed as the No of trains running is a lot more. Also there are a lot of 'Lines' as compared to only Central, Western & Harbour in Bombay. In Bombay if anyone enquired about how to reach a particular station, a regular train traveller will have the information on the tip of his tongue as to which train or line to take. But here even daily travellers have to carry a Tube map to get around because of the large No of lines (almost 15! within London itself & there are more lines for travelling to the counties) and also the stations.

Another point of difference is the timing. The Tube here is so accurate that the indicators actually have the time remaining for the train to arrive & it does arrive in that time. Compare this with Bombay where you are used to announcements such as 'Platform No 2 pe anewali Dombivili ke liye dheemi local anishchit kaal se deri se chal rahi hai' ! and you are left wondering if the train will even arrive & how will you get back home!

But the major difference between the two cities that I had to face was the climate! But more of that later....

Taking the first step....

2007-01-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

No its not about my baby as a lot of people (who know that I am pregnant) would think, looking at the name of the post. Also they might wonder as to when the baby actually arrived! Well, to calm them down, the baby has not yet arrived, (there is quite sometime for that) & so its not about that.

Its about MY first step into the Blog world. I had been thinking of writing down my thoughts on a Blog for a long time now. I had even opened a couple of accounts but never actually got down to write anything. So what is it that triggerred this blog now? The credit goes to my friend Swaps (Swapna to those who dont know what she is called by most of her friends). I received an invitation to view her blog & reading that, shall I say, inspired me to actually write down something.

A few words of warning to all those who will read my Blog, now or in the future. I will be writing about anything & everything that comes to my mind. I will not even try to put down any categories right now because I know that sooner or later I will be exceeding those & writing about something way out of the range!

Another point is that the name of my Blog will remain what it is till the time I think I am still starting or till I figure out how to make changes to it on this site...:)

I will be back with something substantial in a short time, but for now I am happy that I atleast made a start, even if it is nothing but my random thoughts!