A and me

I figured I don't mind A's patronising anymore!!! being much older and very aware of it, he advices (most of it unsolicited) me on even simple household chores. Realised it has stopped getting my goat anymore!!! what's next? looking like him? they say people start looking like each other when they grow old together....

a summer to remember...

The met department said that the monsoons are likely to hit the city in a couple of days. Summer is finally over, school opens, the dusty foilage will soon wear a fresh green look. I have taken a few months off work and spend the summer at home,no holidays, no travelling, no cousins visiting, just plenty of family time..
JB... he did so much.. learnt french, practiced piano every single day, developed a taste in old classic movies with me, spend hours in the pool, had friends over off and on, and when we would let him, tried cooking. I did all of that with him..I have almost started missing him when he's in school.. an obsessed mom: you bet! I am so proud of him. We were always close, but now we are closer.
A: Illness has brought us closer than we were. Food kept us together, now eating right and cycling has.
Me: watched lots and lots of movies.. developed a taste for award winning films in foreign languages, period films and war movies. Cooked, cooked and cooked... JB says I make the best pasta in the world :) :) well he likes my rissotos and roasts too. Brought my vegetarian bengali cooking as close to perfection as I cooked. Finally started finishing a book in a week. Honed my parental skills,lost a little weight (still a drop in the ocean), finally started cycling and so much more. My to do list still had a few things to complete before I get back to work..
If not for anything else, for being able to bond with my son, for ruffling his hair or giving him a big hug as soon as he gets back home from school, for watching A grin in pleasure when I produce another zero oil delicacy from the kitchen, for finally noticing the beautiful gulmohar trees flowering in all their glory in summers, for growing up a little... this is one of the best summers I have had in a long long time

mumbai meri jaan ?....no way!

after a long long time, a trip to mumbai and got to do stuff I always wanted to:

1. Lunch at Britannia, one of Mumbai's most famous Parsi restaurants in Ballard estates.Famous for it's berry pulao and many other mouthwatering parsi dishes...dhansak with brown rice, sali boti etc. not to forget cool drinks like ice cream soda from parsi run factories.

Also encountered Mr. Boman Kohinoor Irani (picture), one of the partners of Britannia, who insists on taking every order himself despite his frail demenour, failing eyesight, memory etc but an unbetable spirit neverthless..

2. Buying crockery from good earth.. a well appointed lifestyle store epitomising the chic indian look. The largest collection of aesthetically put together designs of crockery and furnishing, difficult to make up your mind.. each peice on display is a collector's item in it's self. I was taken aback at the space they have at their disposal bang in the middle of the now upmarket lower parel area.Also had tea at the tasting room with my two elderly aunts and sister in law. The stylish tea service is done in the beautiful good earth crockey... an experience and fragrance (the store has scented with their own mix of essential oils.. I am told a mix of bergmont, lavender and lemon) to remmember and look forward to in the next visit.

3.A visit to Red Blue and Yellow: A much talked about store when it opened.. though I thoroghly enjoyed my visit, I found the ware disappointing or may be I expected much more.

4. Lunch at the Indigo Cafe: BIL, SIL and me stuffed ourselves at the cafe in Andheri (W). A truly satisfying European meal. Spotted Manish Malhotra lunching with what looked like a young intern at the next table..

on the whole a satisfying trip..

Next trip.. drive on Queen's necklace and lunch at olive or goa portuguesa

waiting, waiting and waiting... sigh!

this and that

Day 1 : down with cramps, bad bout of food poisoning, high fever, in bed the whole evening

Day 2 : cycling in the hills in the evening, cooking, giving the kiddo a nice scrub

what the hell am I trying to prove to myself???

amazing science

Watching JB struggle with names of summer and winter fruits and vegetables got me thinking.. there aren't any summer fruits and winter fruits and vegetables at all.. everything is available round the year now. Most of them are just grown in simulated conditions when the weather is not conducive.
it got me thinking... nothing will remain the same anymore. I wonder what I will teach my grand kids. You may not need acres and acres of farmland to grow tonnes of grain anymore, you may not even need soil to grow plants anymore, plant reproduction will happen in labs and trial farms, cereals will also be sources vitamins and minerals, mothers won't scream at their kids to eat their veggies any more, every law of nature is being challenged, the world as we know it is changing at a much faster pace than one can fanthom.. my brush with food revolution slowly sweeping the world has left me humbled ...

Confused soul

The one thing I can do endlessly is.. watch movies on the home theatre in our bedroom cooled by an oversized airconditioner (A and I had a lot of arguements when we first bought it, but now the sturdy oversized AC is the only thing that manages to cool a room filled with a large LCD and a home theatre system, a PC and 2-3 laptops)

bridge on the river kwai and more...

JB and I have been watching a lot of old movies this summer.. we started with The eagle has landed, Guns of navarone and just finished watching The bridge on the river Kwai, The movie still doesn't fail to mesmerise, even in the world of blu rays and 3 D televisions.Alec Guinness potrayal of the spirited and dignified Col Nicholson is captivating and leaves one asking for more. Needless to say JB loved the film.

afternoons and coffeespoons

A quiet afternoon at home, sigh!, wish there were more of these

smiling thru summer

Things I am doing this summer:
1. Finally getting on to a bike.
2. Swimming almost everyday for a couple of weeks
3.Watched JB learn taking baby steps mastering french
4. learning to appreciate a whole new genre of movie - old war movies, period films.
5. Spending more time with A than I ever have since we got married.
6. Finally reading a new Amy Tan
7. Cooking cooking and cooking and loving it all the way. Rediscovering Jamie olivier and bangla ranna
8. Having friends over to spend the day
...... and more. God where did my life go all these years. A welcome break from work after a long long time.

Duplicity Starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen

Dear Ms. Roberts,

Will you please please not have the saaa...mmm....e expression throughout the whole god dammed film. I liked duplicity though, for its anti-climax and slickness. A good watch.

Your fan since pretty woman
Bubble

Of Mr.Khan and Mr. Khan

Dear Mr. Aamir Khan,
I have been a great admirer of your work for many many years. I have watched all your fims from QSQT to 3idiots in the first week of their release. I even tried joining a fan club till I realized the founder was cuckoo.
I think you are one of the most versatile actors in the industry today.
But I am disappointed with you.. you shunned awards in India on the grounds that they were biased and there was too much politicking and lobbying happening around them and yet you did the same thing for Lagaan at the Oscars!!! Isnt there enough lobbying and politicking happening there too! then why the double standards?

Dear Mr. Sharukh Khan,

Way to go!!! Kudos to you for taking on the fanatic bunch of hooligans who call themselves a political party.

cheers...

I love my life

why oh why am I trying to be supermom... movie plans on a weeknight, dinner parties that start at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, gourmet meals with no help....:( all with a full time stressful job.

Tommorow is strawberry smoothie and bowl of dried fruit for breakfast for junior, brunch for cinderella.

at work: analysis of a recently completely survey and a search for a financial analyst for a new business line.

and oh yes, I loooo... ve my blackberry curve.

happy to be back

hey I'm back.. what I have been upto these days, well working, keeping the house , socializing but god ! I missed blogging. gettting addicted to facebook and linked in.I have a love hate relationship with my virtual social life.

As for now, I am back at the gym for the umpteenth time, a bigger better and more encouraging one... and a much more motivated me!

My MBA registration is finally happening in the next couple of weeks.

Work.. have moved up the rung and learnt soo soo much in the last one year. Going strong and looking forward for more

My folks.. have been good, dad's finally found something meaningful to do here. had some great times with them this week

entertainment.. brothers and sisters.. I'm hooked :) planning to finally complete my promise to dada about the NFAI membership this week

Vicky Christina Barcelona

just watched the movie which won an award for supporting actress for Penelope cruz who actually appears in the second half of the movie. The movie talks about romance, love and longing of .. well.. every kind.
based in the spanish countryside the movie is about the relationship between a painter, two american tourists and his ex wife.

more later

I am back folks!

... after a long long time.
so where have a been.. well lots has happened, A is working in Paris, JB is growing up, cindrella seems to be doing OK with her writing editing whatever and me.. well one friend less, still immersed in work in what seems to be an endless wait for the fruits of my labour.

bonus weekend

Finally got to spend some precious time with Junior. Took him for a buffet breakfast at Sun-n-Sand's coffee shop - carrots and celery. A bright sunny place overlooking the pool. came home, hung around and then took him cycling in the evening.
did some ' science experiments' at home from his book on 'cool stuff'. drove around with him listening to 'boomtown rats'.
I think he is an interesting kid, I don't know too many 8 year olds who can discuss boomtown rats, coldplay, the story of hunchback of notredam and composition of the soil in the same breath.
passed up a trip to the salon, to watch him wash his cycle and earn his first bit of pocket money. I think getting him to earn pocket money doing small jobs and chores around the house, is a good idea, - could teach him some valuable lessons in life .

lions for lambs

Lions for Lambs finished abruptly.. just when things seemed to be warming up.
A college professor inspiring a gufted student to do ore meanigful things with his life. Two of his former students in Afghanistan battling for their lives in the battlefront, a probing reporter talking to a senator, inching his way to the white house, about a new military initiative launched in Afghanistan.
Merly Streep, Robert Redford and Tom Cruise.. the movie can't be bad I though when I saw it at the DVD rental store.
A thought provoking movie after a really long spell of crappy song and dance hindi movies I had been watching for a while
Lambs.. military strategist who have never faced the battlefront, planning wars from their air conditioned offices miles away, lions.. the brave and the courageous men, inspiring and driven who actually fight driven by their idealism.

the half centuries in my life..

old people liking me is getting a litle out of hand. now my in laws wants to come and stay in our city. and I am trying to think no there is nothing wrong with that, just more convinient if something happens, we will be right here to look after them. Of course, my parents being in the same city helps, or does'nt it ? dunno, don't want to think about it.

In my moment of weakness I did ask my in laws to move here once and now, 8 years later ,they said yes!

eight birthday parties

I asked JB what he wanted me to do differently (for him) after his eighth birthday, "just go to the gym regularly mama" he said.

we are having two of them, one at home for his building friends and one at the farmhouse with a swim in the river, boat ride etc thrown in. and some fabulous presents - a bike, lego and the like.