A Letter

To whom-so-ever it may concern,

Sir,the next time you decide to purchase some of those heavy duty machines, for your state-of-the-art, modern, newly built factory, please keep in mind the following matters.

1.Buy machines that will run smoothly atleast for the first few years from the date of purchase.
2.If that is highly impossible then make sure that they will run without a problem for a few days after they are painstakingly repaired.
3.If all these doesnt work, the next time you construct a factory, make sure it is at a place where there is recent reception for mobile network providers.

All these would make my husbands and my life much simpler. My husband tends to hide in the factory of yours for hours together in the name of a breakdown and since the signal is soo poor, i hardly get any information too.He completely forgets about the wife because if the production runs lower than the required standard; yours and subsequently our income will be in jeopardy,he gets phone calls at Godforsaken hours of the night and wee hours of the morning about the breakdown and runs off to the factory as if his life is dependent on it... And on the nights he gets back home after getting the machine repaired he will be on the phone for hours together following up. Thank God for books, or else i would have died of boredom and ignorance ;-)
And for statictics, there has been a breakdown E.V.E.R.Y single day of this week. That is on,Sunday,Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday-for clarification.....

So for our marital harmony and for my peace of my mind, please please please do make sure you buy sturdy, reliable machines the next time you shell out your money... The current set you have is no good at all...

Yours faithfully,

The wife of one of your sincere employee

On Home-front

Come to think about it, i havent stayed in one house for more than a year since 2007,March. Every 6 or so months i used to be uprooted to another place- some wantedly and the others totally against my will.

I have stayed in 3 different houses at Mangalore in my 2 year stint there,and none could be exactly called a home. Though the first and the last ones were a close call. And when i moved to Durban with Gin, it was to be my first home. Which Gin and me would set up to our hearts content, decide where the sofa should go and which color curtain should match for our bedroom. Though Gin had done all the baisc purchases i still had room for a lot of changes. I enjoyed moving the sofa to this angle and the other, stocking the fridge and making lists for stuffs to buy when we go out.

I was totally cut for this new role- though it lasted only for a short while in Durban. We had to move back to Chennai on a short notice. Though the time we spend there after the news, were nerve-wrecking, tension filled days we managed to find fun in that too. I mean, today we laugh at all that we did then due to sheer desperation!!!!!!! But isnt there something special about that first house. You tend to remember the look and the feel of every room, the smell that assosiated with it. How you beamed like a proud parent when someone complemeted on some aspect of the house. And how you and your spouse broke your head over buying a particular merchendise and the satisfation you got when you reached at a common decision..Since then we have stayed in 2 other houses,still I miss 1602, Kensignton Heights very much, because it was cut just for a couple. Sweet and small and comfy and that was to be the first home i set up with Gin.

And back we came to Chennai after 3 months of Durban stint, to start house hunting ,because that was where the husband was posted. It was me who zeroed in on the house that we finally decided on,still i never got attatched to that house. Now thinking back, i am glad that we got off from there. The house was too big for the 2 of us and it didnt have a homely feeling. It still felt like we lived out of suitcases. It must have been pure hormones too... I found fault with everything. The road, the dogs, the stray cows and even the frogs that used to crock non-stop in the nights. I hated the smell of the house and every thing associated.... After 2 months of staying there i left for Mangalore to join back at work and to get a transfer to CHennai... Though i missed Gin by the gallon, it was good riddance to the house. I came back for a week in between for a bewak and then after a month or so i got transfered to Chennai from Mangalore.

Finally for the sake of my travel to office we shifted house in mere 4 months. And well, all the packing, shifting, unpacking and cleaning was done by Gin alone. He really needs to get all the credit. And a wonderful job he did.

The new house we are in now is one i can call home after 1602. The place is small. The little stuffs we have perfectly fit into every nook and corner of it- but the husband has cramped 80% of the furniture into the bed room in the name of summer. We no more live out of suitcase, there is place for everything-the keys, the socks , the footwear :) And yes, we have started to frame photos too!!!!!!

In March i was scared that we lost all the Durban photos which was on my phone- some smart-dude decided to run away with my bag from the train and hence lost the phone too:(, but it was not to be. Thanks to my compulsive backing up of the phone. So here i leave with snaps, of the view from our home there... 1602 - you are thorougly missed

Twisted Brain

My father has a cousin who is a practicing beautician. Once while she was visiting us, she was talking about mothers who take their barely 12year old daughters to get their eye brows plucked. Now according to me, a 12 year old must be reading comics, running around playing hide and seek or must be doing their home work. Well, my aunt would promptly send the kids back home saying that, she cant do the eye brow shaping unless the child is at least a 16 year old. The reason being, we have tiny little nerves under our eye brows and they are fully developed only by around 15 years. Now by pulling out the hair from the root can cause damage to the little array of nerves.

Though by the time, i was well past the 16 year old age limit, this little piece of information is etched into my heart. Every time i sit on the beauticians chair and hold my skin tight for her to start the medieval style torture to marginally increase the "looks", my brain retrieves this old piece of information somewhere from it's attic!!! And my muscles go into super alert mode. When the tiny hair is latched on the piece of string, my brain starts to picturise the minuscule vein attached to the base of my skin which is being taunted and pulled this side and that. And the pain level shoots up than the normal marginal level and the whole 5 minutes procedure turns into a uneasy sweating period. I twitch my muscles this way and the other in the pure hope to get my tiny nerves less tormented thus completely screwing up the procedure of eye-brow shaping. And every time, the beautician would look closely at my said eye brows and tell me. "Oh, there is a defect. One eye brow is slightly different from the other". I just node at her...
Well, can i voice out this psychotic drama that goes through my mind....

If only i could retrieve the fundamentals of programming this well, i would be one of the top employees in my company... Twisted brain, i say.....

Presidential Visit

The humble town was very much flattered with the presidential visit.
Day 1 everyone was at the heights of excitement. People from far off places came and stood by the roads to have a glance of the honorable president. And that was the only topice being discussed.
The roads were all blocked one hour prior to her cruising through the said route and we were very honored to have a policeman by our gate.. And with 100 meters from our gate too!!!!!!

People like my amma, did postpond boiling milk for the evening tea so that it wont clash with the presidential timings. She took post at our gate with hundreds of people from the appartament opposite to ours. Her loving husband, my appa did call and inform her that the president had indeed passed by his office and she was sitting on the left side of the car. He didnt want his wife to miss seeing her. And the TATA Safari carrying her whisked past the waiting audiene with just a flash of her cream sari. But all was satisfied...Amm even took pity at the policeman who was sentried at our gate and fed him coffee!!!!!!!No, this is no lone story... We Keralities are really patriotic..

Day 2, when the newspapers announced the timings for the roads to be blocked , we Kottayamites rolled our eyes and said "Even Today???".. The crowd grew thin and amma did boil the milk on time for tea..

TOday is Day 3 and when the drama continues we are groaning and asking very politely, "When is the President going back to Delhi??"..

It is very much ok with people who can work around her timings. LIke go to the bank before she leaves for Place A and then get back home before the roads are blocked for her departure. Then take off for the market and get back home before she lands back from Place A. But then what about a poor lady who suddenly decided to deliver her baby?? God help her after the de routes she has to take...

And today i have to leave for the railway station 2 hours before the scheduled departure of the train.. Ask me why?? The president is landing for her lunch at that time and the roads are blocked... The said railway station is 7 minutes from my home.. Thank you very much..
Very Democratic country.. Oh, what do they say???? Of the people, Bt the people and For the People.. Very true, indeed....

And ask me why i am going to the railway station???? I am going to Tcr coz the husband is coming tomorrow..!!!!!!! I bet his intention of this sweet sweet gesture is to make me guilty for all the nagging and the fights and the crankiness.. :) :) :)

Love- Personified

A very romantic scene was staged before my eyes today. I was traveling by train, and there was an elderly couple sitting with me. They would be in their late 60's. It was lunch time and the tiffin carrier was opened by the wife. Well, my eyes were slyly directed to examine the contents of their lunch. Ok.. Ok, i know it is a bad habit to peep into others lunch. But yeah, those who know me well, knows that I don’t qualify an A in the behavior department. Hence the excuse..
He had 2 pieces of fish fry and she one. Before he started lunch, he broke his second piece into two, and placed the other in her box without as much as lifting his head from the plate. She looked at him, gave him a half smile, and they resumed with their lunch. No words exchanged

There was no hand holding, no stolen glances.. But a much matured love, hardened by years and experiences... Was very touching..
I guess there shouldn’t be much fuss made for a bouquet not given or a holiday not taken, if we can grow up to a couple like them...

God bless them, who ever they are.....

Let Communism take over

My town is smallish and there are quiet a few tycoons who adorn the town. Blue blooded news print owners, estate lords, latex dons marry each other and has a fine breed of sophisticated, delicate, i-have-never-ever-been-on-public-transport-ish kinda people in the esteemed gene-pool of the town. And the funniest thing is that, the town shops, pedicures and borrows books according to tiers in society. Its a we-don’t-cross-each-others-boundary attitude. And for me there was never a situation till very recently, to intrude into their walls.

And it is quiet annoying when they look down on us. 2 weeks ago, i went to a very famous saloon, 'famous' coz of nothing other than the fact that the society ladies think that it is the only place to visit to keep up their dignity, or their nail structure or whatever. There is nothing wrong with that. They can afford the exorbitant prices. Good for them. But then, isn’t it the fundamental etiquette of a business woman to be pleasing to her clients, whether they have holiday homes at Manali or if they go for vacation to Greece?? Or she least bothered about lesser mortals and all she cares about is the right mixture of genes to adorn her chairs???Anyway, let us come back to the point. I went to this saloon to check out what the town oohs and aahs about. The owner thought it was much below her decorum to do small talk with me. She was too busy gossiping to a Page 3 aunt and i was just an insect. She did what she is supposed to do as if it was a favor to me, didn’t take much interest in my suggestions-though it was "MY" hair that she was styling and when she was done, ran away as if she wants to forget the whole episode. The point is that, i didn’t go their for a charity. I was dishing out cash. Hard earned cash, and not what my great grandfather saved so that his not-so-great grand daughter can cruise around on skodas and wax her legs in deluxe saloons. I sat up late nights to pacify irate clients, did excel sheet work for my manager that i dont really have to do and broke my head over issues that gave us nightmares for weeks and worked on many a weekends.. So dont i deserve decent attention too???? No, i am not telling that the lady should discuss with me about the polish her newly acquired rock or about the lettuce not being fresh at the bio-fresh shop they visit. A pleasant manner is all what i am asking for..

A tailoring shop also taught me that, cast system can never be demolished fully. The employees there, gave me a full check- head to toe. And detected that, i am not a visiting niece of the Sector-A families nor was i married into one. So according to their cardinal rule, I could wait. A damsel jumped out of a shining Chevrolet about half an hour after i arrived and announced that she has a train to catch and hence needed preference. That is none of my freaking business if she has a moon bound rocket to catch or if her house is on fire. But then the lady at the shop, went about with taking her measurements and totally ignored me in spite of my protests.. Yeah, the big news is that, the whole town is married to each other. SO if you cross one of them, be rest assured that they can close down the shop or worst; open it to Tier 2. Goodness. Never again i am going to the shop. Oh yeah and if you want to know how the kurtha came out??? It is definitely going to inspire me to never ever gain weight, even by a millimeter. Because if i as much breath in the said kurtha, i can stretch the seams..

Sometimes, communism makes a lot of sense.. Do you get what i said????????

Turning to Kitchen-side

After hybernating at home for about a month with infrequents visits, i have had enough of it. And i decided to shake myself out of the slumber and the laziness.. Drawing inspiration from Chech and Ans, i decided to try my hand at a little baking.No,no.... Nothing grand or intricate like what those two gals do.

My mind was at baking some muffins, but due to the lack of a muffin mould i had to scrap the plan and here i am; with a plain cake baked and frosted with butter chocolate icing... I liked the way it has turned out-light and fluffy.. Beginners luck, ha?????????

Oh.. watched Julie and Julia too. And yes, that too is the reason behind this.... :)