Let it go

Writer's Block- Then and Now

If wishes were horses, I would be on vacation

Vacations, in my mind, the single most important deterrent to not growing up. Summer vacations are the most magical time of all in a child's life. They are the best part of school in my head. Whether you stay at home and roast in the sun cycling at top speed with your best friends, visit cooler climes in India or outside, take a long trip to your grandparents, they are definitely the time of the school year you look forward to the most. Unless, of course, your birthday comes during the summer holidays and you are disappointed with not celebrating it in school.

My vacations at my grandparents' house is the stuff of my most vivid memories probably because it was the most consistent one I took. It was inevitable that we landed up there for at least a month. I never really cared about cool vacations like going to someplace exotic. As long as I got out of my house, I was a happy child. The packing was always a bone of contention between my Mom and me. I would pile on all the games and books and toys I possibly could into my bags, leaving out essentials like my clothes and holiday homework or fight for a dedicated bag to carry all my hobby stuff. My mom who had to carry our bags onward and carry an even larger load ( filled with care packages) on the return journey rightly applied her veto power to ensure that I did nothing of the sort. Though, once my board game proved to be a propitious past time for the entire family. We were all addicted to Brainvita that summer.

Those were the days of limited cable television. Satellite dishes that towered over prosperous looking buildings alone. Junction boxes at the end of the street served the entire area. The couple who lived at the end of our street would shut off the power in their house when they went for their evening walks disrupting service to the populace in the vicinity. This was not the time of 24*7 programming. Rather one had to wait until 12 pm for the telecasts to begin. I ended up watching some old video tapes that had BBC series and Sesame Street and Mickey cartoons recorded on them. The high point of these videos was Mickey's Fantasia. The absolute low point was a scary vampire baby show. I definitely watched that show too early in my life.

In the hot afternoons when everyone was sleeping, I would build elaborate towns and cities of mud, stones and leaves. I laid out paths and roads and even a tiny swimming pool. I then even tried to divert a stream of ant traffic in this direction, but they were having none of it. Guava trees and custard apple trees were ones on which I attempted my tree climbing skills or I clung to the trunk of the coconut tree and counted how long I could hold on. I loved watering plants with my grandfather in the evenings and plucking curry leaves right off the tree for my grandmother.

The trips we planned are a whole story onto themselves. From a hydro electric power plant to a palace filled with artefacts to waterfalls, we covered the gamut of locations that lay in a four to six hour radius around us. We planned elaborate picnic lunches and breakfasts and packed the trunk with all sorts of travel paraphernalia before setting off. I still remember eating idlies with spicy chutney with the windmills on the side of the road whipping the wind through my hair and keeping an eye out for monkeys when eating by the waterfalls. I was initially terrified of wateefalls and their thudding waters especially the Coutralam falls. I later came to enjoy them so much more  so much so that I refused to get out of an artificial waterfall that we had all to ourselves. It was almost like a head massage that puts you to sleep gently.I made a game of spotting the lion tailed macaque and making up stories about the palaces we saw. 

It wasn't just all fun though. My holiday homework was always taken seriously. My grandad made me read Tamil stories aloud for practice, if not for him I would still be sounding Tamil out letter by letter. One of the more torturous assignments I had was writing out a diet chart of everything I ate that day.

These memories belong to a simpler time, not for the entire world like the cliche goes but just for me. When life was less complicated and the only question in my head when I woke up was what's for breakfast. I miss these vacations and vacations of all sorts. I wish I could have a second helping of them.

Weekenders

This weekend started with a trip to the movies with Yennai Arindhal. Ajith and Trisha look very good and Arun Vijay is brilliant, that's about the best thing I can say about the movie. Also the fact that the sight of some watercolors in the movie, inspired me to learn a new technique of painting yesterday. I figure that Gautam Menon has a serious case of writer's block. While I am with him on the idea of making trilogies and cop movies, I cannot presume to understand why he chooses to tell the same story in the same fashion over and over again. I can only say I am glad that I watched it at a discounted ticket price.

'Single Wife' - I finished reading this book yesterday morning. Thanks to my recent reading habits, Scribd app chose to recommend this book to me. Grace is a creative, intelligent woman who is very satisfied with her lot in life. Things change when her husband walks out of the house one day. Initially she suspects that it is like one of his usual disappearances, when he returns after a few days of being incommunicado. Each time he goes missing, based on his reaction on returning, she keeps whittling down the people she informs about his being MIA. This time, she distances herself from the occurrence and refuses to talk about it to her friends and family, still pretending like he is around. She begins secretly investigating his life, discovering things that she did not expect and does not want to know. On the other hand, she misses all the information about her husband on the media and therefore remains puzzled by certain gifts and surprises that she receives. The novel is about her choices and how she decides to proceed with her life.

Did some baking experiments over the weekend. Baked 4 cookies a batch to get a feel for my oven as they call it. Ended up with some burnt, some crisp, some perfect and some soft. I made nan khathai biscuits this Saturday.  Nan Khathais are considered an Afghani/ Iranian invention- nan obviously meaning bread like the butter naans we eat. Khathai is debatable, some people believe it stands for Cathay- meaning China. The best thing about this cookie is its unique taste and texture. Unique taste- because of the cardamom, ghee and yoghurt and texture because it is crunchy out and melty inside.

To make these Indian Shortbreads as Jamie Oliver calls them you will need:
1/2 cup ghee or 1/2 cup soft butter- I used ghee
3/4 cup  powdered sugar
1.5 cups maida
1/4 cup gram flour
1/4 tsp cardamom powder & 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder or 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp of yoghurt
1-2 tsp of milk/water
chopped pista nuts (optional)

The method:
Cream together the sugar and ghee to a smooth paste.
Once it is mixed thoroughly and the sugar has dissolved, add maida, gram flour, cardamom powder and baking soda and knead together.
Add the yoghurt to bring together.
Add water/milk only if the dough appears too dry.
Refrigerate for a couple of hours to make rolling easy.
Roll medium sized balls of dough between your palms
Arrange at a decent distance from each other on an ungreased baking tray. Decent distance because we will press them down and they will expand when baked. Ungreased because we don't want it to burn from the bottom.
Press down criss cross patterns with a fork and slightly flatten the balls.
Top with some chopped pista nuts.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 190 degrees celsius for abt 10-15 minutes. They shouldn't brown on top. Just allow them to brown along the edges. I had to watch these like a hawk.
When you take them out of the oven, they will be soft. Leave them to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring them to the rack.
They will eventually cool and harden completely.

I spent the first part of Sunday lazing in Om Made Cafe eating their yummy brunch- I really liked their spaghetti and their roasted corn spread. Actually, all the tapenades and bruschettas were really tasty and refreshing as was my blueberry lemonade. They allow you to lounge there from 12 pm -4 pm. It's a good spread and a relaxing place to hang out. The latter part of the day was  used for my watercolor and charcoal experiments mentioned in the first paragraph. I finally figured how to use my watercolors instead of going over them with a heavy hand, I never knew that you had to do a coat of plain water before putting in the colors until yesterday.

Here are some of the results:

Odds and Ends

This is a brain clean up exercise, there are a lot of half page or one paragraph blog entries in my head that do not justify a whole post to themselves. It's also a blog clean up exercise, to get rid of some of the headers that will haunt me some day later because I would be unable to recollect what I wished to write about them. This happens to me very often especially with short stories, where I forget the story that I meant to write and write a whole new one altogether.

On my bookshelf this week, my obsession with food related books continues. This week has seen me reading three novels all of which have a strong vein of food and food related activities associated with them. The other recurring vein in all of them is that of loss. Probably, these two are so interwoven as we associate food with comfort, it is a source of consolation that people turn to in times of depression, sadness, separation and any other form of trauma. It is quite interesting also that there are specific traditions relating food to death, in cultures all over the world. From the way the cooking is done, to the dishes that can and cannot be served and feeding one's ancestors souls, food and death have a quirky association, albeit a tad melancholic.

The Kitchen Daughter starts off in a funeral. The heroine might or might not have Asperger's syndrome. She exhibits poor social skills and has a dysfunctional relationship with her sister. Her parents' sudden death in an accident and the subsequent disagreements with her sister about the disposal of their assets, sends her to the safe refuge of her kitchen. There she cooks her Nonna's favourite Ribolita ( Bread soup) which in the wake of its enticing flavoursome smell, conjures up Nonna as well. The rest of the book is about the new people she meets, how she associates with them as well as the shadowy remains of people she summons from their recipes. This book seriously debates the question of whether the label of syndrome associated with mental challenges limits a person and prevents them from achieving their potential or aids them in getting timely help. A well structured book that is enjoyable to read.

Aftertaste- One of the heroines I was able to relate to the most. She is a chef and has her own Italian restaurant and a newborn. Little does she know that one bout of anger and a fight with her husband's paramour will lead to her world collapsing around her ears. This is a story of losing everything and then attempting to build everything up from scratch. It's quite interesting how she goes about it and the realizations she has along the way.

Bread Alone- This was an average book according to me. I did not like Wynter at all. I found her a very indecisive wishy washy heroine. It was supposed to be a story about finding oneself. I felt that she was the same one dimensional character she was when the book began. All of the heroes were lackadaisical. No one person really sticks in your mind except maybe for Linda, the bread maker. She is so rude and angry, but at least she's something, so you remember her. Bread Alone felt like a poor man's chick flick. 

Interesting products I discovered thanks to the wonders of advertising:

Zip SIP brought to you by Aditya Birla My Universe. This is a GUI aided dummy's guide to investment. You answer a bunch of questions, assess your risk profile and then it offers you a portfolio of funds (ABG among others) to invest in.

Hotstar live- Star content hosted on the web, happy to see a netflix like site in India, limited content right now, but hopefully it will ultimately become an option for binge watching

Italian Hot Chocolate is my favorite hot chocolate in the whole world. The first time I had it was at a small railway cafe in Italy. It was on a cold evening while waiting for a train. Italian Hot Chocolate is pretty much melted chocolate. It literally coats your insides as you consume it and fills you with warmth and happiness.

Recipe goes as follows:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate 70% or higher

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons corn starch

Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp 

Place a small quantity of milk along with chopped chocolate/ chocolate chips on really low heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan.

Allow to start melting, once the chocolate has melted completely, add milk, sugar and vanilla essence. Whisk corn starch into it.

Another experiment this week was butterscotch ice-cream. It was simpler than I thought reducing down condensed milk along with milk powder and sugar. The powdered butterscotch was then added after taking it off the heat and allowing it to cook in the residual heat. It's then frozen and blended until creamy and then frozen again before consumption.
The measure of ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups or 500 ml of full fat milk.
- 1/2 cup condensed milk
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk powder
- 3 heaped tsp butterscotch (or 1/2 tsp butterscotch essence)
- Yellow food colour (optional) - See more at: http://www.loveisinmytummy.com/2013/03/butterscotch-ice-cream.html#sthash.bMbrNygp.dpuf

2.5 cups milk
0.5 cup condensed milk
0.25 cup sugar
0.25 cup milk powder
3 heaped Tbsp Butterscotch chips (powdered)

- 2 1/2 cups or 500 ml of full fat milk.
- 1/2 cup condensed milk
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup milk powder
- 3 heaped tsp butterscotch (or 1/2 tsp butterscotch essence)
- Yellow food colour (optional) - See more at: http://www.loveisinmytummy.com/2013/03/butterscotch-ice-cream.html#sthash.bMbrNygp.dpuf