I am not lazy

Just been busy! Really hectic weekends and weekdays.

I loved Thanksgiving Weekend. It was fun. Four days, at home, with Babs and my husband's family. We did little and took good rest. Well, not really.

My SIL and I went shopping at 12.00am on Black Friday. It was super fun. We shopped a little but what we actually enjoyed was relaxing and going to a mall without the kids and buying stuff for ourselves for a change. It was good fun. We also followed it up early in the morning to go shopping at Macy's. All in all, I blew up quite a bit of our $$ and G was super upset that I only spent $20 for him.

One of the days when it was nice and 70 degs outside, we went to Lake Texoma. We got lost on our way there. So we kind of bungled around and landed up at this local Cajun restaurant. The hostess there was super nice. She helped us find out way back and also helped me find a place to ride horses. I was super excited.

We went to the horse riding place and learnt that we would each be given a horse to ride on, we will have a guide and it was a one hour tour in a 200 acre farm. I was really worried if Babs would get on a horse with G. She is afraid of the little horsie toys in the malls and play areas. So I was concerned. But she was a super sport. Mounted the horse with daddy and sang songs all through the trail.

G even galloped a bit but the rest of us stuck to a canter at best. The trail was super fun, lots of trees, and we all had brilliant horses that showed the best time. I want to do it again and if you live in Texas and want to go horse riding, ping me and I will give you contact info for Andy.

After the quick update I have to sign off. It will be two weeks before I ping back. Too much work and parents will be in town for a week. So until then...ciao :)

love

ART

Kick!

And I want to write something down. I am tired. Babs is sick again. I have a dentist appointment and life goes on.

I made breakfast this morning for work. It was my turn for the breakfast club at work. I made a frittata and a huge fruit bowl. I will put the recipe for the frittata on the girlsgonecookin.wordpress.com website soon. I made one mid-size tray and two mini ones. I sent one with G for his work, kept one for safety and the mid-size one and fruit bowl came to work with me. All is well.

I almost took the day off this morning because Babs had a fever the whole night but both her baby sitter and G told me not to worry about it unless the temperature runs high. AG, my colleague picked up the breakfast for me from home while I dropped Babs and came to work.

Like everyone wants to know how sucky my day was.

Anyways, I am watching the Telugu movie Kick, finally. I say finally because there is a funny story.

I do not know to read or write Telugu. I can only speak the language and I love the language but cannot write it. Dad tried three times to teach me and all three times I did not go past A and Aa. Learning to write Tamil was a necessity because I lived in Chennai but Telugu was just a luxury which I could live without happily.

Anyway, coming back to my story. I went to the store, asked for Kick, the guy handed me a DVD that said Kick written on it. Came home, saw the movie, it was decent, time pass and I was happy that I had seen the very popular movie.

Next day, I am talking to another Telugu friend to whom I proudly mentioned that I saw Kick and it was decent. He asked me, "so you like Ravi Teja?"

"No, I think he is ugly and old. But how does that matter, Kick has Allu Arjun in it."

He laughed and said, "nope, Kick has RT in it and Illeana."

I argued saying that he saw the wrong movie, "I should know, I saw the movie."

"What is the story."

I told him the synopsis.

"That movie is Parugu."

I was stunned. I had seen an entire movie thinking it was another movie. Had only I known to read Telugu, this mistake could have been averted, although I always fast forward the first 10 minutes. I was super embarrassed. I went to the store and demanded a return.

So, I am half way through watching Kick. I still cannot stand Ravi Teja. He is way too ugly, and old and Illeana is cute and such a mismatch for him. So when I finish it off, I will write more on the movie.

I have few other movies to watch over the weekend and hopefully I will have enough time. This is the first weekend in many when I have absolutely no plans and hopefully I will make the best use of it. Also, I pray and hope that Babs will get better soon and that I can take her out tomorrow if the weather permits.

With all that said.

I am signing off

ART

Taggggggg

So Megha put me up for this foodie tag. Yes, the truth is I love to eat although I hate to pay more attention to how it is made unless it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare a dish. And almost all my memories of good food is from my amma's kitchen and my growing up days...

• Deepavali mornings when my mom used to make Idli/dosa and Vadakari for breakfast. You should eat it once to know how yummy it is. I remember smelling the yummy Vadakari (the smell of cilantro and cloves) when you walk into the house after a fresh round of bursting crackers on the street.

• Krishna Jayanthi. Mom made boat loads of food for this day. More so on the line of sweets. It would range from laddu, murukku, sweet seedai, spicy seedai, thattai, somas, karasev, karaboondi, golbela, diamond cuts, mixture, etc. She used to at least make 13 items every Krishna jayanthi. Her preps for this festival would start a week ahead and she would cook these items and hide them from us because she did not want us to eat up everything before the festival itself. Every evening when I came back home from school I could smell what she had prepared and it would make me go hungry instantly. Mom always saved up some scraps for all of us to eat up in the evening...miss those days.

• I remember the days when we used to go to the pool during summer vacation, spend an entire noon there. Get tired and hungry instantly. Dad would buy us goldspot or some soda at the club and then buy us either bonda from the club or mom would have made fresh bread bajji's for us...those used to taste like nectar. My brothers and I would gobble them up as soon as they got out of the frying oil. Bread bajji and sauce, bonda and chutney, just plain ol' bajji and chutney...my childhood.

• This is going to sound weird, but the first time I ate Rajma made by G during our K-State days. I had never eaten that bean before ever. And when I came home from a tiring day at school, I gobbled up on this dish and then learned to cook it too. Later I cooked it so much that I began to hate it and quit eating it for almost three years. Now I cook it once in a while.

• Then Kandha Poha and chai for breakfast that G makes on Saturdays...yummm...he makes the best breakfast ever, er...he cooks the best ever next only to my amma.

Ok Tag time...Sum, Puja, Shilpa, Vimmmu, Arshiya...go on take it up...write it down.

Love

ART

Finally...

A long hiatus and I am back...I just could not get myself to write stuff here anymore. On top of it I am still contemplating a move to Wordpress. I just like so many things there that are not here in Blogspot. It is like Blogspot on steroids. But, then it is my first blog and it is close to my heart. It would feel like leaving my home for another one. A home I created with these two hands (literally) to another one. Although, I just might move...don't we all make changes for convenience???

Anyways, topic at hand. So the weekend of Deepavali was hectic. All three days. No kidding.

Babs turned two On Oct 17th. I could not believe it. I still cannot believe that she talks to me in perfectly understandable language. She tells me stories and gives me explanations. She is a little adult already. Feels like yesterday. Time sure flies when you are busy with life. And boy, was I busy!!!

For her birthday this year, we, as in G, his mom, me and Babs went to the aquarium. She had fun seeing the different animals in the rain forest zoo and then seeing her favorite fishes!! I am sure we will go there again probably next year.

Then on the next day, we had a small party at Chuck E Cheese for her and her kiddie friends. I decided that this year, I will not put all my friends with no kids through the misery of attending a kiddie party and pretending to enjoy it. So it was just Babs and six other kids and whose parents were also happy to get their toddlers out for a fun Sunday evening. I had fun and I hope others did too and that was day 3 of a very long weekend!

Oh! I did not tell you what we did on Day 1 right? Friday night I organized and threw this party for G's birthday. It was a surprise party. He did not have an idea about it and all he knew was that we were going to a friend's house for Deepavali dinner. Closer towards the party he started smelling something fishy but he was surprised and happy nevertheless. His mom offered to keep the little one at home so that mom and dad could get drunk, dance and party while the baby was kept safe sleeping on her own bed with her grandma.

We got back home around 4.00 in the morning and wished the little devil for her birthday. It was perfect. The weather, the brat and all of us together.

So ya...that was a helluva packed weekend. Actually all our weekends since the third weekend of September has been packed. It will be a packed one coming up too. I am hoping that we are a little chilled out next week. But honestly, I wont complain. Having family and friends around shows me that the beautiful Indian network of support system still exists, even though in small part there is always someone to help you out.

With that said, I would like to sign off on this beautiful Friday evening. See y'all around the corner soon.

Yours

ART

Babbi...

She talks a mile at a time. I am not lying. She really has big girl stuff to say and always wants to have her word in. So her favorite songs now are...

Chiggy Wiggy (Blue)

Aahun Aahun (Love Aaj Kal)

Hadippa (Dil Bole Hadippa)

Desi Girl (Dostana)

Mukkala (Kadhalan)

Maula mere (Anwar)

Haule Haule (Rab ne Bana Di Jodi)

Ye Ishq (Jab We Met)

Nagada (Jab We Met)

Nakka Mukka (Tamil Movie)

Among many others for which there is a constant you-tube request from her. The best part is she also sings these songs and many more and also has a matching dance step for each of the song. So if I do a bangra kind of hand movement she will guess it is Aahun Aahun and start singing it...or sometimes do the hand movement and ask me, "amma, ye kaun sa ghana hai?" (What song is this?)

She is a constant source of entertainment. She is doing balti (rolling on her head), jumps around imaginative hurdles, and is always behind me no matter where I am or what I am doing.

She can say all her alphabets and sing it too and also knows her numbers till 10. She can recite the Gayatri Mantra and also say Vakrathund and Om Shahanavavatu. I am trying to make her learn the Gita now :)

I am trying potty training but half-heartedly so she is not out of her diapers yet. But she can drink her milk and other liquids out of a glass instead of a sippy cup. And she does bite me when she is super happy or beat me when she is angry.

She has asked me, "Amma, tu monkey hai?" (Are you a monkey?), or "Papa, tu daboo hai?" (Are you dumb?). And she has also told her dad many times, "Papa, amma ko tang nahin karneka" (Don't disturb mom) in fultu Amchi Mumbaiyya.

My baby sitter tried in vain to teach her "aap" and "hum" but Babs goes on to say, "tereko" and "mereko." G thinks that she talks the typical Mumbai Bhai language. At best she says, "tu."

She speaks comfortably in Konkani, Hindi and English. And if you do not understand something she tells you in Konkani, she translates it for you in English.

And she loves dancing and singing. Here is a clip of her singing in June 2009.

She will be turning two this Saturday and it is good for me to know that she is hitting all her milestones at just the right time. I always thank God that I got a baby perfect to match my personality. She is not too demanding and can make do with what I provide for. My little brat. I cannot believe you are going to be two! Feels like it was yesterday when I held you in my hands and you fit into my palm...almost :)

Love

Amma ART

Girls Gone Cookin'

That is the name of our new blog.

It is a foodie Blog with about 11 of us girls who will be filling it up with fun recipes to share.

Please visit it to see the serious side of me!!! hehehehe

http://girlsgonecookin.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/boondi-laddus/

Here is our first post up already.

Thanks for being a patron for our new website.

Love

ART

Food Blog

I must confess, I love eating. Which is one of my woes because loosing weight is becoming a loosing battle for me everyday, and I cannot stop eating! This is how my life sucks.

So anyway, I want to start a food blog, of things that me/my hubby cook. Simple and easy to make stuff. But I want to do it with friends.

If you think you would be interested to join the group and contribute to recipes that you love making, please be my guest and comment on this post. So when I create the blog you will also be able to put your recipes on it easily. What say?

Thanks

Anu

Dushera!

Growing up I loved this season a lot. First it marked the end of quarterly exams and beginning of quarterly holidays. I hate going to school and the promise of a ten day long vacation just made me happy. Of course the last day of vacation always made me sad and me, along with all my friends would look for Varuna's interference in bringing the monsoon a little sooner to our parts of the world. Which of course meant more days off from school and more play time with friends who lived around our house.

Then it also meant the coming of Deepavali. All I can say is that I have a few really favorite festivals and Deepavali ranks very high on it. I mean who would not like to go and burst fire crackers, dress up, eat amazingly good food, and hang out in the house for at least three days depending on what day D actually fell on.

I have been getting super nostalgic offlate. I think it has to do with the fact that my daughter is almost two now and when I take her to places, I explain everything in context with what I knew as a kid. For example, yesterday we walked into the Temple. The first thing to the left I saw Golu. Golu is arranging dolls based on a myth or some really cute dolls in small steps. It is definitely very Tamizhian to do it but I am not sure if any other states also celebrate Navratri in this particular way. So, I showed it to Babs and I explained to her what it is all about and immediately I could only think of my days past when I was a little kid totting along my mom from one house to another.

Golu

Mom used to dress me up in nice pavadai sattai (silk skirt and blouse) every day in the evening and we would at least visit a minimum of two houses a day. And this was the norm for the nine days. Some one or the other would invite us and we would sometimes have to go to as many as five houses on a single day. Of course only women were invited and my brothers would wait for me eagerly to bring in the dhonnai (bowls made from lotus leaf) filled with goodies, of which channa dal was the most common item. Each person trying to outdo the rest will always put a spin to things they give to us.

My daughter Babs wearing a typical South Indian pavadai sattai

First it was me accompanying mom because my brothers wanted my dhonnai. Then it was me taking mom in my two wheeler because we were now in Chennai and we could not just walk to friends house. Bigger city meant more travel. I used to wear my pavadai dhavani now (half-saree).

And then I had to drive mom around in my car. I was big enough to get my License to drive. It was so much fun. I miss those days.

I also miss seeing cars decorated for Ayudha Pooja. What a site it would be. It was also the day when most of the road accidents would happen owing to the large number of pumpkins that were broken to ward off evil eye.

Check out the decoration on the lorry. Cars will be decked up sometimes with small banana plants on either side. I am not kidding, people go really crazy to ward off evil eye.

We also had to put our books and pens and other things that would help us in life down next to god and take a break from work until the next day. I always had my math text and my Hero pen kept before God hoping that I would clear math...well that was until I was in my 9th.

Typical Saraswati Pooja setup. This is how it would look at my home too.

There was always holiday homework that we would have to do and obviously I would not have done it. And it would be this one day when I would need to take it out and work on it but amma would say a big NO to studying of any form. I would then sit up late to finish it off before school started the next day and then the wait for Deepavali would resume.

Phew...Long post...but this was a part of my life in India. Chinna Chinna Aasai...

Love

ART

Pictures above are not from my camera and are copyrighted to the following websites:

Golu: theiyers.net

The Lorry: photographersdirect.com

The Pooja: Priyaskitchen.wordpress.com