Material Girl

This really cheesy movie called Chalo Dilli teaches you a thing or two about attitude towards life. When the "holier than thou" Mihika (Lara Dutta) gets scared of a roach on the table and plops Manu Gupta's (Vinay Pathak) phone in the curry and ruins it (not jsut the curry guys - the phone), all Manuji has to say is "Cheez hi hai" [for the Non-Desis - "It's just a thing"].

I remember fretting a lot over such "things" - but over time I've realized that if something has to have a short shelf life, it is inevitable. You can take the utmost care of your possessions but if something has to break / fall / get scratched / tear / rip / get lost / get stolen.. it will. You can't help it. At the end of the day you can be smug about owning these "things" but you can't pack them with you when you are finally "packing"!

A colleague of mine just bought a beautiful CAAAAR but thanks to the traffic and road rage in Mumbai it's got this huge scratch on it. It's heartbreaking to see your first car gets its first scratch. Trust me! But that's the thing - you can't help it. And once the account is open, the following dents, bumps and scratches don't matter. Quite like the most painful first time for everything (Hullo! I mean your first workout - get your head outta the gutter!)

Read this book called How Will You Measure Your Life. As we grow up and come across driven. ambitious people who weigh their success on certain stereotypical parameters, we also have certain measures to gauge how well we are doing in our own life - how successful we are. And more often than not, we end up having a mental check list of sorts that may / may not include items such as great job, great house, great car, great investments and great retirement plans. We end up comparing our list with our peers and see how many ticks there are on each. I am not saying we shouldn't be ambitious. I am saying the ambition need not always revolve around material wealth.

A great house can get washed away. A tree could fall on the great car. The great locality you live in could suddenly be the next DOWISATREPLA. These are things. And they are ephemeral. And insurance can protect you from material loss, but not the emotional damage caused by it. That, well, is in your hands.

Detachment is really hard to find in this brand conscious, gadget crazy, material world. I am a material girl. What I have matters to me. And it should. I've worked hard for it. But I guess I need to stop fretting over these "things" too much! There is so much more to fret over - like being fit, being happy, being loved, being awesome!

The 'Cook'ie Crumbles

Having been brought up as more of an imp than a girl, no one around expected me to set foot in the kitchen. Ever. I did have my play sets and my 'Barbie In Kitchen' kits that I used to laboriously lay out in a corner of the house on one of those sleepy Sunday afternoons and play by myself for hours but there was no way I could have shared that with my friends, all of them being guys.I could make a decent omelette somewhere in middle school and did take pains to learn how to make chicken as well. I did get a hang of baking early on too. But that was it. When seventeen I couldn't make a decent Indian meal to save my life which was quite depressing! But apart from a one-time coaxing from my Dad to make Poha and an otherwise indirect comment as to 'how I would manage' no one ever asked me to learn how to cook. They were too obsessed with getting me to study to begin with! 

When in Bangalore I ventured into my friend's kitchen once in a while to make the basics for the gang - suji ka halwa, khichdi, dal, chawal.. tried fish one time with inputs from the Bong fraternity. Made bhindi once which was under-cooked and tried baking a cake which turned out to be overdone and bland! Yes, I've had my fair share of Oops! moments in the culinary department. Once at my local guardian's place they asked me to make chapatis and they turned out to be papad. They were just too nice to eat them.

Gradually with time spent at home and outside I did get to make the quintessential meal and turned everyone I know into experimental guinea pigs. Took advantage of my folks being too nice and got them to try out some good flukes and most disasters that I conjured up in a pan. 

The ultimate test of good Indian cooking - the roti - was still elusive to me. With me moving into my current apartment, I tried my hand at that as well - mostly because only I could be subjected to that atrocity and also coz my roommates were quite inspiring since they can whip up a meal from scratch almost every day. So slowly I got to it - sometimes it wouldn't rise, other times it would be as sticky as glue. I've had rotis falling off and rotis popping like balloons. But yes, I can now proudly say that I can make a decent fulka without risking any dental damage to the consumer. 

With all that I keep reading and watching (check out this blog by a senior of mine that I'm a regular at - She's doing a brilliant job!), the books, the recipes I've borrowed and stolen from friends and family over time, the shows on TV - yes I'm one of those who watches only TLC, NDTV Good Times and the occasional MasterChef and of course, trying out at the plethora of restaurants I veer into, I can really think of flavours in my head and get them out on the plate.. Feels good! It's a brilliant de-stresser and gives you a weird kinda high..

I just hope I never tire of this - coz it certainly is bliss!