Sunday Gyaan

It pays to be patient. It pays to smile, wait and just let things be for a while. It pays to keep thinking positively and keeping your doubts away for as long as possible. It is not easy. It requires a lot of conditioning, distraction and support. But in the end, when all turns well, which it mostly does, you think of the person you have become. You think of the hardships you went though. You think of the compromises you made. You think of how determined you were. It pays to go through the pain – it really does. 

I am happy to report that after nearly 40 days of weird pain in my back which gave me sleepless nights, I am back. I need to write about this special case since when I read in forums, people said it never goes! It is yet not completely ok, but the improvement requires one hell of a celebration. I am also happy to report that not once during this period did I feel sad. I was actually laughing about the funny pain all the time. 

Yes, I am an inspiration. Do learn from me!

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I am the type of person who takes complete responsibility. If something goes wrong, I don’t go around playing the blame game. I look inside and think of things I could have done to prevent the situation or improve the current situation. It gives me happiness that things are mine to control. 

I hardly ever put it on God either. I consider myself as a believer who doesn’t indulge in rituals or idol worship. But when things aren’t going right, I go to him and take it all out. I don’t look for answers, I just look for support. And I get it. In terms of peace, in terms of strength.

And so, I don’t like it when people say it is God’s will especially when things are going wrong. If God is like a parent, why would he take happiness in our pain. Why don’t we look beyond God’s will and work towards our goal. Maybe God’s ‘will’ is to see us as a stronger and better person? 

I don’t know if this makes sense to you. All I am trying to say is stop blaming God for all your worries. Take control over your mind and body. God is your companion who will support you in sickness and in health. Your mind and body is God’s gift to you, how you take care of it is your gift to Him. It is really up to you. Become the master of your own destiny.

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'It is easier said than done,' most people say. If you actually repeat that 100 times a day, you will never do what you want to do. STOP saying that!! Everything is possible. And just in case it doesn't happen for you, trust me, you will love the person you become with all the strength, determination and exuberance you show in the process. 

Aim to become an inspiration to the world and not someone to be pitied upon so that when they write your story you are the hero and not the victim.

The Reluctant Cook

As a housewife, I consider it my duty to cook. No, no it is not an archaic belief that I have, it is my way of contributing to the household income! Just so you know, the Boy thanks me every time I serve him a meal. He makes all kinds of yummy noises and rewards my efforts. At my workplace, I am priceless, treasured and sometimes, feared!

How am I feared? - one may ask. If the Boy deviates from his normal code of conduct, he is told that if he doesn't know how to cook, he is not allowed to comment. If he does say a thing or two, I tell him to leave the food and order for himself next time. My sulking at his slightest criticism makes him a mere employee who takes the used dishes to the kitchen or microwave the leftovers and me, the boss who doesn't take any shit!

Hmm.. he is indeed a bechara like the world calls him.

Before you do make that assumption, let me also tell you that I am a decent cook. I never entered the kitchen before I got married. One day my mother forced me to sit with her and write the recipes for basic vegetables. Since she is a vegetarian, she hardly made chicken. I use to eat meat gravy in restaurants and called myself a non-vegetarian. To cut the long story short, I had no clue how to make dal, aaloo, roti, chicken or even rice.

I did have one advantage - the Boy had lived in the hostel for 7 long years and had developed taste for everything in the world. From the chefs of Kharagpur to the cooks of Lucknow, he had tasted food fit for the patients and patients-to-be.  And so, when I started to cook for him, he congratulated me on begining on a fantastic note.

I must say that it is his patience and humility has that made me the type of cook that I am today. After 5 years, I can now churn out a dish with confidence. I can look at a recipe and tell if it would work for our taste buds. Every week, I try to make one new dish to keep myself motivated. Since I am that person who doesn't leave any opportunity to be lazy, I need to make things which are interesting. Regular food bores me to no end. Just to keep some passion alive, I keep experimenting.

That's a lot of I, I , I! I really hate to brag but I can now make a lot of Indian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese - both Veg and Non-veg. I am not the type who has the patience to click pictures before I eat and so, the ones below are a work of a cook and not a photographer. These dishes work much better on the taste buds than are pleasing to the eyes. Frankly, I don't believe in presentation. It is my way of saying that looks are not important. Anyway, I'm putting these pictures just to prove that I am not bragging and that my Boy is not a bechara!

All great meals start with a well-stocked fridge. Ever Saturday we shop for groceries. I have a very small fridge to accommodate a week's stuff. But I manage.

That's how an awesome Tandoori chicken is made.

I can make dosa too!!

That's my famous pizza with home-made sauce and Crust. Yes, I bake the crust with the toppings!

Chicken meatballs in spicy curry. This is the latest addition.

My favorite, favorite salad. Lettuce, cucumber, carrots and feta cheese with Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing.

That's a Khalua cake. I don't make cakes without alcohol ;)

Fish tikka with sauteed veggies and yoghurt mint chutney. Slurppppp!

Steamed brocolli, babycorn, peas and corn - ah, well, we do need to diet, no?

That is how I am rewarded on Valentines day. Yummy yummy aaloo paratha!!! The Boy will kill me for making this public. Now you tell me, if he was a bechara would he do this for me?

I make pepper chicken and mutton kebabs that are to-die-for. I'm not kidding! I get requests to make them for people! I do make gobhi, bhindi, methi, palak, beans, capsicum, dals, etc, etc, etc. But really, who likes to make all that out of interest!? So, anyway, are you like me? - Reluctant yet passionate? Lazy yet hyper when something turns out awesome? More than anything - Not very confident yet extremely talented?

And then I say I don't like to brag :)

None of your bloody business!

As it is evident from the title of this post – I am extremely angry right now. Let me tell everyone who reads a blog/website – we know you are visiting. If you are just reading us... genuinely liking us...spying on us... if you are stalking us – we know it, we know it all. Sometimes we can tell exactly who is doing that. EXACTLY. 

Let me also tell you how we do that. All of us have a statistics counter given to us by blogger/wordpress/tumblr. Some of us go an extra mile and install another stat counter. Usually we use these to know what is driving traffic to our blog. It is heartening to know the number of visitors on each blog post. It also tells us what is well written and what makes us a poor writer. 

I too have these stat counters. I know who comes here to find Ms. Leone only to find that the post was written in good humour and doesn’t have anything of his interest. As much as I know this, I also know who comes only to read my blog by just typing Teeth that Sparkle/Shimmeringsunshine.

Frankly, I am ok with that because this is a public place and you have a right to read. In fact I want people to read otherwise why would I write! I am ok even if you never acknowledge that fact because of whatever reason you have. What I am not okay with is someone googling Shimmeringsunshine dont want a baby / Teeth that sparkle nisha fertile mother. THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Whoever you are, do come to me and ask. I will tell you how your parents wasted money on your education and how you do not deserve the ability to google. Look inside yourself, what good comes to you with THIS kind of information? The world is full of utter nuisance and trying to know why someone is not married or doesn’t have a baby or is getting divorced is SHAMEFUL to say the least. And don’t tell me that you are genuinely concerned ‘cause you would not be spying on me like this if you really were. GET A LIFE. 

This person spent a lot of time on my blog today only to search for what was most interesting to him/her. I really pity him/her. I’m writing this post only because I want him/her to come back by searching for those exact words and get a slap on his face. You've disgraced your upbringing; really you have.

A Mother's day revelation

Yesterday was disturbing, I’ll tell you why. I am 31. Most of my ‘Friends’ on Facebook are around my age. Most of them are new mommies loving their new found love -  Motherhood. So yesterday was the most joyous day of the year for them. They were all over the page either patronizing their own mothers (and the forced inclusion – the MIL!) or self-proclaiming the fact that they were indeed the best moms. 

Before you start criticising me since I’m not a mother, I would like to add a little disclaimer here – This is my blog. These are my views. We live in a democracy. Atleast for now. So... you get the point, right!? P.S. I love you. I hope you still love me too!

Now I understand that each mother goes through a hell lot. She attends to an ungrateful baby who grows up to be the most thankless soul and runs away with a girl or a boy. She then spends the rest of her life trying to catch a glimpse of a person who was the centre of her life for 18 odd years. Some of us call our mothers once in a week and answer questions like what are we eating, how is the weather and if we are really telling the truth when we say ‘we are fine’. If she is in need, we would run to her for a week or two and do everything we can. But ask us to go and live with her for the rest of our lives and most of us will say NO!

Yet on mother’s day I see my timeline filled with immense love. Most mothers are not on Facebook. But that doesn’t deter my friends to let me know how much they love their mother. I can bet that half of them have not said ‘I love you, Mom’ ever in person. But on Facebook, their love knows no boundaries. Atleast they say it somewhere, some would argue. Well, I don’t understand those people!

Anyway, so I made a customary call to my mother yesterday. She started her usual rant by telling me all the troubles she was facing at home (which were really self-made). She went on for half an hour gossiping about family members and how stressful her life was. I gave her a good one by telling her to back-off and take a chill pill. I told her to read, play with the kids, go to the park and watch Comedy nights with Kapil. She started laughing and said that all was actually ok. I really did not understand if she was stressed or just taking my case.

After I hung up I thought to myself how annoying this was. Then I felt guilty of thinking like that about my own mother. I mean, everyone on my Facebook loves their mommy to bits! And here I was wanting my mother to stop the bitching and hang up. 

See I am not a bad daughter. I was always the favourite of everyone at home; including the extended family. I did my homework on time and got excellent grades. I dated a whole lot but never stressed my parents with the truth! I did not spend much, I took care of myself and got married into a family which was not into thinking that their son was a gold mine. I am not saying that my mother did not have a tough time dealing with me; in fact she had to handle a kid who had a certain amount of disability which made both of us feel guilty in some way or the other. But... this does not mean she would take revenge with me like this!

So, on belated mother’s day, I would like to ask the world – is mommyhood over-rated? Is loving your parents to a normal extent and not ‘infinity and beyond’ a crime? And do mommies really take revenge consciously? I know it is a hard fact to accept but I can guarantee that every mother has done her bit to laugh her ass off for keeping her awake at night when we were a baby. 

Just like my mother who is the best mom in the world (it is not hard to say this when I have no one else to compare her with!) whom I love to bits (again, do I have a choice?). Ok, ok, I really do. Promise. You can call her and ask. 

Cricket Crazy Creatures!

Stuck in sticky situations many-a-time,
Banned to watch the IPL, like it was a crime.
Friends won’t leave us alone. Work, uh, it tries to come first.
In conditions like this, certain excuses I trust!

Once we promised a friend we would be at her place by 8,

The match was on, we were definitely going to be late.
We had to cook up a story that did not sound strange,
So I told her how a bird crapped on me and how I had to come back home to change!

Yes, yes, yes! It did sound genuine.

Want another justification? This could fool anyone:
One Semi-final night we had to deceive a friend who was rather cute,
We told her how we were being followed and how we had to re-route!

We are not mean, we just like to watch every ball,

If you know how cricket crazy we are, just don’t call!
And if you catch us off-guard, we have an excuse on the list:
‘Match? What match? We have to go to the dentist.’

Charitable event is yet another excuse we have used a couple of times.

We are down with viral? – yes sometimes.
We are mean, crooks you say?
Oh, we’ll be witty to watch the IPL anytime, anyday!

Here is the last crazy idea that has worked quite well:

We call the person and ring a bell.
'You are not home, it seems to me.
Oh, this is your old home, how silly I can be!'

Tch, Tch, Tch... now don’t say you pity our friends,

We are nice to them after May and make amends.
Sometimes these excuses don’t work and we just try to keep calm,
And then watch the Pepsi IPL on Star Sports.com.

You’ve seen the live streaming – have you or have you not?

Or your excuses always work – you’ve never been caught?
I, for one, always have this favorite feature on the website open.
Although I hope my plans always work. To that, let’s just say - Amen!


 

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