The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

For the love of Tea!

Srinu's chai


Himani's chai


Aunty's kehwa and nun-chai [the salty kashmiri chai]



Gopadi's bengali chai



Jenny's maramiah tea




Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh................... Here I go - on a tea trip down the memory lane!


Be it the mountains...



Or by the sea...


On a desert highway...


Or the coziness of a room...

Be it a coffee shop

or chai green at Finjaan....

It's the memory associated that makes 'tea' the most relished thing on Earth!

"I love company. I love solitude. I love TV. I love movies. I love sunsets. I love books. I love tea. I love drinking tea in company or alone, watching TV or a movie, reading a book or watching sunset."

This is what I had written about myself somewhere else in the cyberspace.

It is going to be midnight, I have to be up by 6am tomorrow and I am wide awake! I had slept off in the evening on the couch for a couple of hours - woke up all stiff. I went down for a stroll to the ATM machine, came back, had tea and have been trying to get back to normal life which is staying up late, replying to emails, browsing, telling friends how much they mean to me:-)
With exams and all that I didn't realise how January is almost over.

Since I am not sleepy I thought I will add something on "tea" here:

Be it home, University of Hyderabad, NCST, IIIT or PSU, tea has brought me closer to some people - all I can say. It's not just people who drink tea - even those who do not drink tea are closer as they give their share of tea to me! It brings me smiles as I recollect how I had double tea on the Godavari cruise. Himani is the best! I will never forget the patience she has to make tea for us though she would be tired. And to think she wouldn't have it. My love for tea started with Dad of course. It's fun to scream into the kitchen for tea when there is heavy cooking going on. I love the in-between meals tea very much. The morning/evening, after breakfast tea are regular, but the 'irregular' ones are the best ones.

The kettles come in different shapes, the heat from different sources - wood, gas, electricity, the cups are made of paper, glass, china or steel, the place to have tea is anywhere and the time to have it is anytime!





I can go on and on....

If given my way I would like to resize the pictures - but I let it go. It's nice to be non-anal sometimes, I feel. Winding up with a few more memories....

Fishtacular Friday!

My first attempt at fish!


Fish and chips...


acchi machchi!



Of fin and fun!

This past week had been a fishful week. A big fish was bought for me by one of my acquaintances – cut into pieces. Four pieces were put in each bag and I put them in the freezer. For the first time, I fried fish on my own. Dr. Nasreen visited me that night – we ate them together. It was good!

Twice Shahjahan – the cook from a café – bought fish curry. It was nice. Eat as much as you want without putting on extra fatJ Today I have made fish curry. It is done. Will it eat later. Just had my third cup of tea. Today I got up at 6am and I feel I have all the time in the world. I had made poha for breakfast. With Jagjit Singh, the morning started on a good note. Switched channels a bit. Nothing much. It is 1.30pm now. Playing Jagjit singh again… [The internet is connected but again the web server is down. Will post this soon….Should connect in the evening ]

Ye tera ghar ye mera ghar

Kisiko dekhana ho agar

Toh pehle aake maangle meri nazar teri nazar

Ye tera ghar ye mera ghar

Kisiko dekhana ho agar

Toh pehle aake maangle meri nazar teri nazar

Ye tera ghar ye mera ghar

Ye ghar bahut haseen hai...

Ye ghar bahut haseen hai...

Back to my stories of fish curries. I would always make a statement that I don’t eat fish outside my house. Sherin always remembers this – when she asked me to come to her home to have her fish curry – I had said so, according to her. I might have. I dunno. My mother makes excellent fish fries and curries. Now under her training, Paru also does it excellently. Whatever my children order – they get it from their grappa. In spite of his knee pain, he goes to the market to get fish!! When my mother fries fish, simultaneously we will be eating them – before lunch. Strangely, my brother doesn’t like fish, prawns… So whenever there is fish, mutton curry or kheema is made for his sake.

Let me close my eyes and recall all those people I associate with sea food:

1. Shampa’s family – aunty and Babili di – again hardly any spice but tasty. APPM colony, Mallayapeta. Rajahmundry.
2. Helen akka – she made this wonderful fish curry when we were studying at HCU. It was the small fish type. [I don’t know the names of fish].
3. Mohanty sir – he had this knack of putting fish in mouth and out came only the bone!! I love this family. My many dinners were here and also at GUR and UNS’s places - when I was on univ campus. These three families were part of my HCU life!
4. Akka – they eat a lot of fish too. And akka is an expert too. She makes good dishes. Yummm…
5. Sandipa and Sanu – A bong and a mallu! The fish was done very well with hardly any spices. Chembur – journalist colony. We all ate fish at a small restaurant near VT station, once. We also ate at the Goan restaurant near Lucky restaurant twice.
6. Precious – her house would smell of fish! No meat for her.
7. Last but not the least my kids! Here's a picture of them - they just got up from sleep to see live fish!
   

I have been going around and smelling the house – it doesn’t smell! May be big fish don’t smell. Now that is an ambiguous sentence! Anyway, I let the exhaust fan run and kept the front door open for a while. The ice-cold breeze was good for 2 minutes only. Shut the door and lit an agarbatti.

Will have lunch now. Will take pictures with my camera phone. Hope they will come out well….

[Saturday dated: Have added the pictures. Here goes the post too:-)]

Breakfast is important for me!

When I recall the breakfasts - my mind travels from Riyadh to Rajahmundry to Mumbai to Hyderabad. Let me list my favorites here:

Rajahmundry: Mom's place: puri and aalu ki sabji, pesarattu
Hyderabad: Akka's place: thin dosas, vadas
Hyderabad: IIIT hostel: crisp dosas, puris
Visakhapatnam: Guna: semiya upma, chapati and omelette
Mumbai: NCST: aalu parathe!!

In Riyadh, I cannot say they are my favorites, but the 'usual': Instant veg noodles, sandwiches, burger, muesli, fruit....

That brings us to the interesting question - why am I putting the pictures of the 'usual'? This leads to ask myself why am I blogging? Why does everyone write? Why do we write journals? Why? Is it our time capsule? Is it how the future generation should know what we did, what we ate, where did we travel, what were our thoughts, who our friends were....

Perhaps!

For now, I continue writing and posting:-)

Italians will turn in their grave!

or in my gravy, if you wish the phrase!




I do make pasta with my own choices of the ingredients. I make a sauce following my mindJ No one stops me, of course. So here are the preparations made on different days – just the shapes are different – one is helix- fusilli and the other butterflies-farfelle.

The sauce had onions, tomatoes, cheese, Indian spices etc. The Indian spirit is shown in the garnish of coriander.

I like it. I also love the authentic Italian pasta. There was an Italian restaurant in Bandra next to Mexican [Taco Bell] and one more eatery– Pizza Hut. It was a small but a lovely place. As I close my eyes and recall – I see Sandipa, Indrani, Gabin, Pravina… I had pasta with Pravina – she was from HCU – a Keralite with a PhD in Economics. A very tall girl! We enjoyed her two days stay with me at Nandina. Another time, Sandipa, Indrani and I went to eat there. All I remember is lots of giggles, change of tables and Leslie Lewis with his family in the adjoining table. I don’t remember who all were there for the dinner with Gabin. I remember Gabin because he paid the bill – as usual. Bandra is such a lovely place. I had a wonderful time – thanks to the dhinchaekers, ncstians, Sandipa, Indrani on her flying visits, Deepa, the bhel-puri wala, the kulfi wala, the chai-wale at the reclamation bus-depot, the peanut sellers at bandstand, the candle sellers at St. Mary’s church, the bookseller at Lotus…the sulky ‘Madam’ at the grocery store, the nice people at Deepak stores, the ‘uncle’ at Radhika STD booth…. the plays at St. Andrews and Rang Sharada…Other restaurants we went frequently – Pal’s Fish corner, Lucky, the Goan restaurant next to it, Stomach [Chinese], Sherlock Homes [now closed], Shiv Sagar and Hot Breads. At China Gate, Nafisa Joseph was sitting at our adjoining table with her family. Her conversation was loud and audible – it was about how she misses B’lore – is all I remember now. Felt bad when I read the tragedy years later.

Oh my God! So many things are rolling down the memory lane… Shopping on Hill Road, Linking Road, watching sunset at Bandstand, feeling the peace at St. Mary’s church and Mt. Carmel church, walking through the small lanes admiring the Goan type houses, chatting with our watchmen, observing our neighbour from building number 7 – the actor Rohini Hattangidi, playing with the little brats, Lakshana, Tanu, the dhinacheks…

Some day will go and relive “Bandra”, but now will go and make the aalu+egg curry – had boiled them yesterday, but didn’t cook them for two reasons – somebody gave me chicken curry and I hadn’t finished my spring cleaning. Not that the cleaning is done yet today! No matter how hard you try, cleaning the house doesn't get over in one day...