Curd Rice Lessons !

We are a vegetarian family and hence during every vacation, finding food becomes an activity that involves a slight amount of additional effort.

Within India of course its not a problem, but outside its sometimes a huge challenge. 

One thing we need to remember is, that just because a dish is listed under vegetables on the menu card, it does not necessarily have to be vegetarian. It only indicates that the main ingredient is not chicken or beef. It could have any prawn or shrimp flavoring.In most parts of South East Asia, anchovies get added to food like we Indians add coriander leaves. Its like the grand finale step!

Once in the US, I went to a restaurant and explained with all possible words and gestures that I don't take meat. After a long stare at me as if she were working out three hundred and twenty seven divided by thirty nine, the waitress suggested a dish. To make sure, I asked for the ingredients and she went on 'pepper, onions, garlic and fish oil'. Fish Oil? Excuse Me! "Well, you said you did not take meat, not seafood. Besides no one told me that fish ain't vegetarian" She did not say that, but I could hear the words in her mind with amazing clarity. Then onward I make it a point to explain 'No meat, no seafood, no fish, no egg' .

Additionally if the language spoken is alien to us then better learn the word for 'vegetarian' before setting foot on that soil.

We had gone to Langkawi with my in laws and hence we were on the lookout for food that was Indian in addition to being vegetarian.

Just before we left for Penang from Langkawi we asked our taxi driver to drop us in some Indian restaurant. Every corner in the world has an Indian restaurant that serves Naan, Rotis , Dal and Dahi. We just need to find it. In most cases the name is usually Taj or Maharajah :). Antartica may be the only exception !

The driver stopped in front of a restaurant and the board outside proclaimed 'Arabic, Western and Indian cuisine'. That indicated that they did not serve Indian cuisine exclusively! Above that, our home food was third on the list. THIRD!!! It was actually a Middle Eastern restaurant that also served Western and Indian food. 'Ah-ah-Aaan' the alarms in our brains chimed in symphonic harmony. "Is there any other place nearby?" we asked the driver with caution. He had found the place after umpteen number of calls to some knowledgeable friend of his. This question had a high possibility of triggering violence in the afternoon heat.

'Why don't you take a look at the menu first?' he suggested.

We were greeted with a very warm welcoming smile by the person in charge. 'Do you have N-a-a-n, Cha-pa-thi?' we asked with some hesitation. Somehow whenever we talk to someone under the assumption that he would not understand us, we tend to say it very slow; giving a kilometer space between each syllable! How on earth would the speed in which a word is uttered make a difference? Anyways that's what we did as well. After all we are also human!

When he said "Yes we do" we thanked Mars, Venus , Jupiter and the whole family of planetary objects who were now spinning slightly tilted in our direction.

 "Curd?" .

"Yes" and then he uttered something which would sound like soul stirring music to the ears of any TamBrahm(Tamil Brahmin) "I can make curd rice for you if you would like that"

We were almost singing "Yankee Doodle went to town" when we entered the place.

They had a nice cozy family room that was secluded and gave us much needed peace and privacy for the meal.

There was no tomato soup in the menu card but he was ready to make it for us. We gave the situation a thought.Curd Rice was no big deal but a never-before-attempted-tomato-soup? We politely declined and stuck to the menu.

Masala Papad, Vegetable Pakoras, steaming chapathis, Dal, Mix Veg Masala - arrived one after another . The taste was heavenly and the aromas had us drifting into a meditative state of inner peace! Impeccably done with everything in correct proportion, the room was reverberating with the blessings that our satisfied souls were subconsciously sending in the man's direction.

Finally when the curd rice arrived we were spell bound. With the mustard, urad dal and curry leaves tempering, it appeared very close to perfection. When a spoonful of that went into our mouths we closed our eyes and uttered 'Ummmm' like the models in Gulab Jamun advertisements. It tasted close to perfection as well.

The basic purpose behind this post was to point out the business attitude and salesmanship of that person at the restaurant.

The effort that went into the curd rice preparation may have been minimal but that was what we needed at that hour. Knowing the need of your customer and going a little bit out of your way in satisfying that will go a long way in the success of any business.

We left the place happy and I am sure if we go to Langkawi again we will definitely pay him a visit. That sort of lasting impression would decide who stays in the run and who does not.

Boy! I never knew that my darling "Thayir Sadham"(curd rice) would get my simple mind to think about such topics like business, sales etc .   (Of course it proved the age old saying that appearances could be deceptive!)

Problems - Challenges

Update after my previous post on license hunt - I received my license by post last week :) (Alls well that ends well)

Just back from a nice trip to Langkawi and Penang in Malaysia, shall blog about it in later posts.

For now just want to share something I came across in a Child Enrichment center notice board. They were providing assurance to train the kids to "face problems as challenges"

The phrase triggered my interest. As we often hear 'Who does not have problems?' But do we all face them as challenges?

Mostly we sulk at them, put the blame on time, fate and the planets and then spend a whole lot of our energy lamenting about them. If we start taking every problem in life as a challenge say like a video game where  we need to get to the next level no matter what, wouldn't our energies be channeled towards a much more meaningful direction?

Actually kids dont need this sort of training. They naturally are like that. Nothing deters them.
One just needs to observe a child with fever. When the temperature shoots , he would lie curled like a ball on his mother;s lap. The moment it subsides, he would be back on his toes and start running around, his cheery self back in place. What would we adults do, proclaim to the whole world that we are not well, make a hue and cry about our physical pain, curse the pollution around and keep magnifying every small discomfort that we have.

Observe a child learning to walk. No matter how many times he falls or whatever problems he faces in doing so, he will find a way out and he will not stop attempting no matter what!

How would life be if things happened all the time without any hassle? Level 1 of the video game always? Problems pose challenges and with them we grow into better, more mature persons.

Next time we are in the middle of any problem, lets consciously analyze how we are dealing with it. Perhaps it would be a lot more easier to face and solve!

My Lady Luck of License

There are things in life which you think are a piece of cake (pieces of cake to be grammatically precise) but eventually they turn out to be what I call still in the butter-flour-batter stage! There is a long way to go that  is hidden from your pathetic mortal eyes!

In Singapore if you have an Indian Licence you can get it converted to a Singaporean one, once you clear the basic theory test.

Piece of Cake isn't it? With that thought, I set off on my mission to obtain a driver's license here. Little did I know that Lady Luck of License had me on her 'Ah-Ah-Aaan-NOT-SO-FAST' list!

Well, I did clear the Basic Theory Test at my first attempt (despite the pass percentage being quite high!Phew!)

I had obtained my Indian license when I was in college way back in 2000. The dude who took the photograph then at the RTO office or rather the equipment he possessed had given me a kind of "posthumous" effect in that. Not to mention the "posthumous effect caused by Hepatitis A" effect. I have no idea why I looked that yellow in that. Of course I did look like Frankenstein's niece.

That was not a problem anyways. The template of the license was though. The person at the counter said that I need to convert it into the latest card format

When we got back to Chennai for vacation, we contacted the local RTO for the license format conversion.It so happened that I had gotten my license at Erode, a town around 9 hours drive away from Chennai. Now, no part of my family stays there and my own home and home-in-law is at Chennai .

When I approached the RTO in Chennai, they requested for a a No-Objection letter from their counterparts in Erode.

My father in law sweetly agreed to travel to Erode solely for this purpose. After an overnight journey, he arrived at the entrance of the Erode RTO to find all doors locked tight and secure. It was a public holiday there for some local festival. My LLL (Lady Luck...) now was happily smirking away to glory! Somehow, my father in law caught hold of some person there who like a guardian angel said that he would take care and send the No Objection letter by post.

That man kept his word and it did arrive. Then was the procedure of going to the local Chennai RTO to get the conversion done and do I have to elaborate how the system there works? Luckily it did not take more than a couple of days and finally I had the license in the new format.

Back in Singapore I approached them for a license conversion again. (The best thing is the Basic Theory Test result is valid for life :) ). Thats when I realized that my new license was a later format but not the latest one. So they requested me to approach the Indian High Commission at Singapore to obtain a letter certifying the validity of my license.

Basically the High Commission takes my application and then contacts the Chennai RTO to verify my license details and once it receives a response, would give me a letter holding the Indian emblem.(Oh yeah it costs some money).

After a couple of months I finally got that letter.

Yesterday I went again with absolutely no confidence about succeeding though I had all documents. Yeah, my darling Lady Luck... had succeeded in thrashing down my morale and hope.

But I guess she was asleep yesterday. All documents were fine and I succeeded finally in my attempt.

No wait, I am yet to receive the license. It would come to me in a month by post. Keeping fingers crossed there. You never know! LLL can devise methods we can never imagine!

Indifiction Workshop Edition Exercise 4 - She did not fail to notice

Indifiction Workshop is a story writing workshop for bloggers interested in fiction. This was initiated by 'The Fool' who blogs athttp://luciferhouseinc.blogspot.in and C.Suresh who blogs at http://jambudweepam.blogspot.in

Detailed plot will be given. Everyone has to tell the story using their own narrative style. Different narrative styles will be evaluated by fellow participants and judges. 

The plot for the first exercise as part of the same was authored by Rajrupa Gupta who blogs at Riot Of Random and whose debut novel 'The Crazy Algorithm Of Love' was published recently. Link to the plot: http://www.indifictionworkshop.blogspot.sg/2013/01/exercise-for-edition-4.html

My version of the plot:

Story Title: She did not fail to notice

Story:

It was close to 3 a.m. Malini was seated on the sofa, her eyes exhausted but vigilant. The living room was dark except for the light from the television that kept spraying a myriad of shades across her face.  The volume had been muted. Her eyes were locked on the television screen; at something that was far beyond. The only sound that perturbed the silence of the hour was the gentle rhythmic sounds from the wall clock as its hands kept chasing one another.

 “I am coming home, Malu”, he had said before hanging up.

Continue reading at http://www.indifictionworkshop.blogspot.sg/2013/01/she-did-not-fail-to-notice.html

Down the Drain!

I dont know about the rest of the world but I do have some Mr.Bean days when I end up doing really really stupid things.

I dont think I have that much brains like a rocket scientist but my absent-mindedness must be on par with the worst of their kind with respect to that.

Well, yesterday I was just about to empty the dustbin in the bath room. I would tie the garbage bag and dump it down a refuse chute(a common one for the entire floor).It would slide down a concealed inaccessible path to a huge garbage tank and join the garbage bags from the rest of the apartment which would number around 10 * 15 i.e. 150. Of course the number of times each house contributes in a day needs to be estimated as well.

Well, as I was emptying the dustbin I saw the unopened pack of toothpaste on the bathroom counter.It dawned on me that the toothpaste packet would need to be thrown as well after removing the tube from inside. Why not dispose it off now itself at one shot ? I thought. I proceeded to add the empty pack to the garbage bag before proceeding to throw it away forever. At least I thought so.

When we were about to retire for the night my husband asked 'Hey where is the tube? This pack is empty?' . I froze at the sight of what he held in his hand. The empty packet of the toothpaste. Yours truly seemed to have retained the pack and thrown the unopened tube of toothpaste in the garbage. My conscience immediately projected a cunning thought outward. 'You had brought a mega-size pack to save money hi hi'

I tried to recollect the exact moment when I threw that thing into the garbage bag but drew an absolute blank! Was I really that stupid? I kept thinking. Blank! Blank! Blank! What on earth was going on in my mind then? I wondered. Blank! Blank! Blank! again.

This brought earlier episode to my mind. A lot more costlier one!

It was the day after I returned from vacation. Like all first-week-after-vacation s, it was a very productive one where I felt rejuvenated and did my chores perfectly on time. The moment I got up, I emptied the garbage bins in the house and sent the bags down the chute.

A few hours later, we found the back cover of our cordless phone dumped somewhere by my little brat.

We thought he would have kept the phone in one of his usual hiding places. After hunting the house, we asked him. 'V do you know where the black phone is?' 

'Yes Amma , in the dustbin'

'Which one?'

'The blue one'

'Bathroom or kitchen?'

'Kitchen!'

Oh Oh!! My little fellow had thought that piece of black plastic to be a waste.

All this while we at home and the teachers at school have been trying to educate him about cleanliness and the practice of binning litter and not strewing them around and little junior had strictly followed the rules! Unaware of that, I had happily tied up the bag and dumped it down the refuse chute.

So our cordless phone literally went down the drain that day! As did the Colgate toothpaste yesterday!

Coming back to the latter episode, all I could manage was a sheepish grin when my husband stared at me bewildered and totally dumbfounded by my act. 'Now I really doubt who threw that phone!' he added with a  sly smile ! :(  ha ha

Now, I have begun to say a silent prayer before dumping the garbage!

And the world was silent again

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 35; the thirty-fifth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The theme for the month is "...and the world was silent again"

"No, Shekar, No!"  Her tremorous voice jolts me out of my slumber.It is pitch dark and very silent.

For a moment, a series of images flashing her smiling face accompanied by the gurgle of her laughter dance  all around me.

Then I remember . That night when I had to leave her behind. The absolute terror in those eyes! The eyes that were pleading with me. I had no choice.

"Shekar, Promise me! Promise me that you'll always be with me." The day I proposed, she had whispered these words as she buried her head in my chest and wrapped her arms tightly around me.

 Panic engulfs me. I must go back to her.

I rush outside. The moment I step out, a familiar smell wafts through the air. Roses! The roses in her perfume!Then I hear that gurgle again.

I turn around and I see her, dressed in her favorite floral skirt and pink shirt. Her features seem to be accentuated by those flowers in her hair.

Her eyes are locked in mine as she walks towards me.

"Shwe..."

 "Shhh" She brings her fingers to my lips and does not allow me to complete.Gently she holds my hands in hers. "Lets go" she says softly.

The mourners and the priest did what they had to do and the world was silent again.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. Introduced By: C.Suresh, Participation Count: 6

New Year Check List

Well, like every other year that I am destined to be a part of, 2012 also drew to a close.

Come New Years Day and every one is talking about New Year Resolutions...ranging from simple things like being punctual to slightly tougher ones like losing weight and really complex ones like career shifts...

Of course there is one category that does not believe in them or rather simply do not have any.

I should mention about the self-declared enlightened souls for whom New Years Day is just another day in the calendar and God knows why there is such a lot of hoo-haa all over the globe!

The media is abuzz with umpteen Top Ten lists of 2012. Top Ten movies (Best and Worst), Top ten events, etc etc....

I was thinking of what to put in a New Years post and I thought of an exercise we could all do...

1. Take a piece of paper and chalk out a list of things that you did in 2012 that you feel genuinely good about. 
2. It could be an achievement, a new learning , a kind act, anything.
3. Take some time to go through the list.
4. Then make a list of things you want to do in 2013.
5. On the last day of every month , take that list out and check if you have actually done something in the direction you wanted.

New Experiences: One need not go on an expedition to Mt Everest to get what we call 'experience'. Its relative to what each person has been doing. A simple act like tasting a new fruit for the first time is an experience in its own right. What is imperative is being conscious of every new experience and having the attitude to relish and appreciate it.

A helping hand, a listening ear: The happiness, a selfless act done for someone else brings, is immaculate. Even when a mountain of worry is taunting you, if you help someone, the smile of gratitude would make you a thousand times lighter. There are million ways in which we can make a difference in the world we live in. Donate to an orphanage, join an NGO for volunteering, spread some literacy around or simply visit the nearest hospital once in a while and donate blood. Even if all this is impossible , one of the easiest things to do is provide some kindness and warmth. A simple 'Good Morning' to the old man in the wheelchair whom you see everyday on your way to work would be a noble act.

Some 'Me' time: A lot has been written about the rat race of today's materialistic world that everyone is entangled in. Often one forgets to spare some time to do the things we love to do, that gives us a great amount of peace and happiness. It could be painting for some and poetry to others. Indulge in this 'Me Time' activity regularly. Life would be more stress free.

A little Learning: Knowing new things not only empowers us but instills a whole lot of confidence.The greatest and eternal teacher is life itself.  Often a small amount of retrospection can teach us so many new things. Something I have often heard quoted is 'No learning goes a waste'. If there is some desire you hold to learn something - say to play the guitar or may be Karate(could not think of anything else at the moment) , GO FOR IT.

Thats just a few I could think of.

Before I sign off on this post, just a final line ( Now that I have gotten into a super-preach-mode Somebody stop me!! :) )

We cannot possibly change the circumstances around us but how we react to any situation is entirely in OUR CONTROL.

Wishing you all 

Excellent Health,

Prosperity,

A whole lot of fun

And Never Ending Happiness

In 2013.

Happy New Year