Coffee- My Love

AS long as I can remember, I have woken up in the morning, with my first thoughts on the great cofee my mother would be brewing in the kitchen... Though it sounds exaggerated, I really used to get up only because of the heavenly aroma wafting from the kitchen... I used to enjoy drinking the coffee, siiting on the floor in my bedroom, with the lights turned off.( after brushing teeth of course). I used to hate any sounds or disturbance during my tryst with my morning coffee...

Nothing beats a fresly brewed coffee with the decoction,milk and sugar in the precise proportions... We south Indians especially take pride in oru "filter coffee". No instant coffee can claim remote semblance to the fresh coffee out of a filter....

Back in the US, I had forgotten to take our coffee filter with me.so it was only instant coffee.. Every single day of my stay there, I used to remember my mom's coffee, and sniff in the phantom aroma of her coffee in nostalgia.. Thankfully another couple we knew had the filter and the lady used to make excellent coffee.. So if we went to their place even late into the night, we would ask her for her filter coffee.. Not only that, my hubby used to call up his friend who lived alone in another state and irritate him saying " Tell me what i am doing now??? I am drinking hot hot filter coffee... " and that guy would go "Grrrrrrrr".

I like my coffeee with less sugar.. i like my coffeee a little bitter.. As I always say, nothing can beat a good cuppa Kaapi..
And in case anyone wants to have a taste of it, try making it for yourself... you won't repent the effort!!!

Yesterday it rained....

Chennai experienced a complete deluge yesterday! what a day! when i awoke in the morniong it was raining, and then it rained and rained and rained.. My husband, sincerity personified left for office like it was any other day in his life.... But me! no way!.. such rainy days are meant for one to huddle in the house with a nice hot cuppa coffee and watch the weather report.. The fact that my office was floating in the waters was enough reason for me to call itquits for the day...

So after my hubby left, I spoke on the phone for a while with my sister ((the mother of the cute fellow down in another blog of mine)) and then brewed fresh coffee( kumbakonam degee coffee...) for myself.. i really enjoy coffee(more on coffee in my next blog) and especially in the chill of yesterday, it was a veritable elixir! After savouring my coffee.. i had to get back to household chores.. The sincerity persona of my house returned earlier than usual, so i had company to talk to after that...

In spite of the grim pictures that the News channels painted of the situation in other parts of chennai, I was a wee bit disheartened that it had ceased to rain by 8.00P.M..
I was making elaborate plans to spend a couple of hours with my nephew.. all of it went under a cloud.( what a paradox.. since the clouds had cleared, my plans went under a cloud!!!)..

In fact today morning, I tried talking my hubby into letting mw take today off on the premise that my office was still waterlogged.. But he wouldnt hear of it...

So here i am in office, using my lunch break to blog all about it....

Happiness Quotient

The supplement of today's Hindu newspaper carried an article to the effect that India ranked fourth in the happiness of people. It went on to say that Indian exult at life's little things like a well made Idli or a leisure trip to ones native place or even a mere visit to the shop nearby..
Carrying it further, I would like to add that to In dians the family is still the very primary bolster.. For a good cross section of us, all our motivation, inspiration and desires spring from the fact that we are rooted in a family.. Imagine eating a meal alone vs. with your loved one... Imagine shopping for Diwali,Ramzan or Christmas alone vs. with the entire family... For the average middle class family(that forms a good proportion of the Indian population) life revolves around parents, spouse,siblings children and other relatives and friends...When a middle clas person gets a rise in his salary, he would be thinking more as to how he can make his family happy with the additional income, than about the very fact that he has been given a rise.... When we do have loved ones, and ones to love us, and love expessed not on an appointment basis , but on a day to day basis, our happiness quotient is bound to be at astronomical levels.

So, does that study take into acount the population in their sixties and seventies.... I am not sure.... But those who did figure in that study can make the lives of these senior citizens as happy... A short visit to your aged relative's place can usher in a whole lot of happiness into his life for at least that day... and if an aged relative does pass away, you won't be left with the guilty feeling that you failed to make him happy before he departed.

This is Avinash, my sister's son.At close to six months, he is such a darling.. When he gets excited, he'll give a toothless grin, putting even baby Krishna to shame... He is such a cutey guy! dont u think so too???

Memoirs of Bygone Diwalis

As the festival of light fast approaches, I cannot help the nostalgic thoughts about the bygone Diwalis of my life...

The first few Diwalis of my life(14-15) to be exact were alwys at the home of my maternal grandparents. My aunts and uncles, numbering 7-8 made the very idea of Diwali a very ecstatic one... As long as my grandmother was alive, in spite of her old age and health problems, she ensured we celebrated Diwali the way it is to be actually celebrated..

On a said day, at least a fortnight before the D-Day all of us- my uncles, aunts , my sister and myself, would pile up into my uncle's Ambassador.(My mom would be at our paternal home, obviously, discharging her duties as wife and daughter-in-law).We would drive to T.Nagar.(Then it was not even 10% as crowded as it is today.). Sarees for all the ladies, including daughter-in-law dhoties and shirts for all men including sons-in-law, and for us, our uncles and aunts would deluge us with clothes and other goodies.. Further out father too would buy us new clothes and other paraphernalia.As for crackers, my dad would buy a whole lot, and my second uncle(almost in charge of the crackers department) would buy the remaining things we asked for impulsively.. We would start bursting crackers a couple of days before the actual day. Never used to bursting crackers any earlier.

My sister and myself would migrate to our grandparent's place a couple of days before diwali. All my aunts would start the preparation of sweets and savouries under my grandpa's guidance (really till date no one can makea perfect Jangri like my Thatha nor a melt-in-the-mouth Mysorepak like my thatha..... and he was no way in the catering line) .While my grandma, even in her close-to-bed-ridden state, insisted on all the rituals, she would let us- her grand daughters taste all the sweets before they were offered to the Gods..

The night before Diwali the Puja room would be decorated nicely, and all our new clothes would be arranged in front of the altar..So also the boxes of sweets , crackers etc..

On Diwali, our thatha would shake us awake by 3.30... After the mornign coffee, Patti would smear oil on our heads and one of the aunts would bathe us. Another aunt would be doing elaborate Kolams in the front yard.. Once bathed, our grandpa would take out our new clothes from the altar, and hand it to us with "Manjal Kumkum". We would prostrate before the altar first and then to our grandparents, don our new clothes. By now the uncles would be ready too...By the time we all gear up to fire the crackers, my dad and mom would call up to wish every one "Happy Diwali"..

And then we would start bursting crackers under the watchful eyes of the elders... In between hunger pangs would send us scurrying inside for sampling the sweets..(My grandma would be yelling at us not to eat the oily stuff on an empty stomach, but who cares!!!)..
By 8.30 in the morn, Tiffin would be ready in all its delicious forms.. Once that goes in, sleep would start taking over...

By now my parents too would come, and prostrate before my grandparents.. My dad and maternal grandpa shared a relationship like no other.... a standing example for every father-in-law and son-in-law.... Lunch would be ready by now, so all of us would have a great time at the dining table..

By afternoon, we'd all be dog tired and go into slumber for a couple of hours. after another round of coffee and sweets we would resume bursting crackers... Which would eventually go on till night... My uncle would desperately try to save some crackers for Karthikai Deepam.(somehow he always succeeded)..

And after all the fun, we would just bundle into bed, oblivious to the fact that the elders had to prepare for another hectic routine day when it dawns next....

Our elders gave us the BEST... Those memories sometimes makes me wonder if we can give them back even a minuscule of the happiness which they gave us..... I will treasure these memoirs of those Diwalis forever and ever, and never forget to narrate it to the kids in the family.. In a couple of years when he can understandwords, I'll be repeating this story to my nephew.... I am sure, my uncles and aunts, old as they grow, will be glad to know the impact their love has had on us....

Happy Diwali...Let us also try to spread the love and cheer to those around as.. just as we received them....

Anne Geddes

I think Anne Geddes must be the happiest person on earth- always photographing babies... just one picture of my nephew holding out his teeny weeny arms gives me goosepimples and fills my eyes with involuntary tears.... She must be having such a wonderful feeling that'll last her life after life...Truly a child represents all that is pure and divine in existence.. Probably that is why we are all drawn to a child- we subconsciously yearn for union with goodness and divinity... This is just a proof of it....

So no more spellbees

Today's newspaper article on the government's decision to relax the rule of reducing marks in the CBSE board exams for spelling mistakes was indeed thought provoking.Just check out the article on
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/10/19/stories/2005101900540100.htm

What is the big idea behind this... Just to get students across the board exam hurdle, if the government can relax on this spelling rule in english, why not relax the rule about calculation mistakes in Mathematics, physics or chemistry?
The 3 main R's of education are reading writing and arithmetic... If we cannot even learn those basics right, that we make mistakes at the board exam level, what is the use of 10 years of education?

Already at the professional courses level, we have incompetent candidates gaining entry into engineering and medical fields by paying huge sums of money as "capitation fees". If even at the school level the rules are relaxed, where is the quality of educaion going?

There are high level spelling contests in Great Britain where children as young as 13 and 14 years speel really difficult words and become stars. Are Indian children so dumb that they cant spell simple words in science , history and geography properly???

Waste Not Want Not

After having a look at this picture if any of you still waste food... you are not fit to be human beings..we may not be able to feed all the famine victims of Africa... we can at least handle food responsibly... Somewhere down the line, our responsible handling of food might make a difference...
The Hindu religion says "Annam Brahma" Food is God...
So lets try not to waste this life giving commodity.

The World Ends in 2006

There are websites that claim that the orld is going to witness a holocaust of sorts in 2006, and that it is the cataclysmic year... After which a 1000year period of peace would start....
Please please please... can we just go on with day to day life instead of speaking all this crap! as if the mundane problems of life werent enough, people had to stretch the limits of their imagination to predict doomsday...And so what if it is doomsday? Can anyone stop it? If you know it, can you please keep your mouth shut without alarming the more frail souls?
For one I think all this is nonsense, because, my spiritual Guru has said he'll be alive for another 14 years in his physical body.. Which means he'll take care of the world and protect us from catastrophe...

Monday Morning Blues

However old I grow, Monday Morning Blues has a vice like grip on me... even this morning I was squirming on the thought of having to get out of my warm cozy bed... My husband seems to have an innate ability to switch between Sunday mood and weekday mood.. Haven't heard him complain a single day about having to crawl out of bed to work....
Some people say that if we enjoy our work we would not be complaining about Monday Morning blues... Well.. may be... but in my case, once i am at work place, i have no regrets... but till i get there... i am so upset that a whole week lies ahead for next Sunday..
Well, I guess ranting and raving wont help...So i just blogged!!!!

Fun with MS Excel

Today I was working with an Excel sheet..My problem was this...I hasd a column of vaalues A1 to A50. Then I had a value in A51 and A52.My formula involved adding A51 to all the values from A1 to A50 and divide the sum by A52. If i entered "=(A1+A51)/A52 and did ctrl C and ctrl V, what happened was, in addition to A1 getting successively incremented, A51 and A52 were also getting incremented..Ad I had no clue how to fix the problem..Then my senior told me to write =(A1+A51)/A52 in the first cell, and then position the cursor at A51 and do F4 followed by F2. This basicalaly locks the row and column.Same to be done with A52. then I could do Ctrl C and Ctrl V and I got what I wanted..Pretty cool it was !!!!

Counting my Blessings

Yesterday it was raining in Chennai, my hometown.... and there was no electicity at home....

But then I have a home, about which i can complain ,saying "There was no electricity at home" . An instant thought flashed through my mind then and there...There are hundreds, probably thousands, who have lost their all to the earthquake in the Himalayan vicinity, who have no home, no electricity, no food, no warmth, when it is raining and snowing mercilessly... It occured to me that mine was a situation when i should be counting my blessings.

Sometimes we fail to realise how fortunate we are, compared to some of our fellow men, and we continue to hanker after what is not....

Howzzat??

Amateurs built the ark
Professionals built the Titanic.

Found this signature on someone's forum.. I think it is cool!!!

Shirdi Sai in Kelambakkam

Yesterday I had been to the Shirdi Sai temple in Kelambakkam...you take the Old Mahabalipuram road, cross Sholinganallur, Karappakkam, Siruseri.. This temple is immediately to the left as soon as you see the "Kelambakkam Limit Begins" board.Set in a village backdrop, it is an extremely calm surrounding... The Shirdi Sai there is smiling, as against his more sedate counterparts in other temples... There is a Dwarakamai, Panchamukha Ganapathi,Gurusthan, Murugan .. There is a palanquin too..The presiding statue has been sculpted by Rajasthani sculptors, while the pictures in Dwarakamai and palanquin have been painted by one Mrs.Uma..
The Purohit Sri.Senthil had gotten a message like vision from Shirdi Sai to build this temple...He says funds and help poured in from unexpected quarters at the right moments in the course of the temple coming up..He also adds that the next series of temples are planned in Thiruvannamalai, Virudhachalam ,Pondicherry, and one in London....
It is a must see temple for any Sai devotee..I'll try appending pictures of the temple and deities to this blog as soon as i can.

Nature's Fury

First it was the December 26 2004 Tsunami... then a landslide in California.... then Hurricane Katrina... Hurricane Rita.... and now the earthquake in Pakistan... not to mention the minor furies of forest fires, floods , typhoons and the like that are happening around the world.. Mother nature seems to be on a roll..... a destructive one that... Is she trying to convey something that her ignorant children are yet to decipher and understand?She has sent forth water, fire, wind, earth.. four of her five elements are destructive messengers.... She seems to be telling us " Enough of your demonaic nature... if i show you my destructive side, ye shall be reduced to nothing"... I remember reading that during the previous cataclysm, it was water everywhere, and Noah saved samples of all living things in his ark. The next cataclysm is going to be by fire(a Christian said this referring to the Bible) Are we slowly tending towards "Judgement Day"??Maybe yes....I think it is time for all of humanity to stop and re-evaluate its actions, towards nature and its fellow creatures...

And now a contest on dress code

Our people never fail to capitalise on situatuions.After anna university brought up this issue on dress code, there has been much ado on whether it makes any sense to have a dress code at the college level...We had students ranting and raving about being victmised in college for not sporting the right attire . We had activists speaking about why the decision was a bad one.. And now, we have an essay competetion on this topic of whether imposing a dress code in college was a right decision...
Well, personally I believe that as an educational institution every college is an epitome of values. As a means of formal education, colleges also teach its students how to conduct oneself in the real world. So it does differ from a discotheque or pub of a hangout in some way. So it does make sense to expect that students sport respectable attire in the college premises.But who defines what "respectable attire" is ?There are institutions that expect girls to wear only sarees to college.And then a good cross section of the colleges allow girls to wear Salwars. And the remaining colleges- the ones for the elites let girls come in Jeans and other western clothes... So whats wrong with jeans.... I have seen Kiran Bedi in interviews wearing Jeans and shirt... she looked as respectable as she would in a saree..And then whats right with Indian clothes? I haveseen some of the tinsel world vamps abusing the Saree and Salwar by the way they wore it... So who decides what is respectable or otherwise...
I think... if a person of the opposite gender can look at you and feel respect for you, without entertaining any basal thoughts, then what you are wearing is respectable...
What do you think?

Navaratri Around the corner

This year Navarathri starts on October 4th.October 3rd is the Mahalaya Amavasya.Thatis he day when the Navarathri Kolu is set up...I always look forward to it, because we get to visit relatives, hare Sundal, get the young nes to sing and dance, bring out the latent artist in everyone in the familt in getting the Kolu together... Though we dont arrange a formal Kolu, I love to draw elaborate Kolams on all the 9 days and deck myself in the best of my attire... Wwe also get to distribute small packets containing odd items for women.. betel leaves and betel nuts, coconut, vermilion, combs, miniature mirrors, bangles and any other cute gift as is our ability..
I especially like the Pattu Pavadais that some big textile shops have come up with for young girls.. I have 3 nieces and some day Iwant tobuy them a nice Pattu Pavadai, bangles, anklets, necklaces etc,dress them up nicely complete with flowers, and take a picture in the background of a spacious Chettinad house with lots of greenery...
And I absolutely adore Mylapore during this season( all about mylapore in a seperate blog).. the clay dolls, the jewelry shops, the apparel shops, the traitional gift shops, the temples... all of them hve an ethereal look this time of the year... like the literary Mathura as is described in the sriptures...
So sum and substance is... I am looking SO forwad to this Navarathri!!!!