The first time

At 11,000 meters above sea, over a carpet of grey and white clouds, in a sky which goes that strange smokey blue after sunset, I saw the moon rise, that too a full moon. I kept staring out of the window as it darkened outside till all I could see was the moon.
I donot remember how many flights I have taken in my life time, but this is the first time I saw a full moon rise while airbourne. I kept thinking if I have ever seen something so beautiful. Well yes, I guess but each in its own way is unique, beyond compare and breathtakingly beautiful.
The first sun rise by the sea, the first sight of imposssibly tall and proud snow clad mountains, the first time I saw the sea turing into molten silver on a clear night, the first time I stood in front of Van Gog's Starry Night or the first time I saw the Taj Mahal, it took my breath away.
So many first times with the overwhelming beauty of what lay before me!
As i sat in the flight I wondered why do we adults say a lot less 'wow's than children? Is it I am 'wow' ed less? Is this the natural law of growing old? Or is it the 'first time' comes very far between now? Or is it that less and less impress us as we grow older? My 5 year old say 'wow' a lot!
Well today was rare, a first and I was impressed. Hope to be able to reach out to this picture in my head and say, thank god I was alive to see this! And to many more firsts!

Balle balle

Just moved to Delhi and lo and behold what do i discover in the menu of the very respectable "southhh indian" eatry....the ......Dosa palak paneer!!!

The Gobi Manhurian, then the Chettinad Gobi Manchurian and now my friends the Dosa Palak Paneer!!!
Be still my beating heart ...it still beats for you my India and am loving it!

I, who have never driven a car, know, in no uncertain terms the significance of the red, green and yellow lights at traffic signals. Even I, who is disinterested in the art of going from point A to point B, have been known to push up my nose from the book and admonish the driver for confusing the significance of the blinking lights at crossings.

All this till I read...
what the mayor of Napels had to say. ( Napels is the most chaotic city for drivers, even most Italians say so). "The green light is a green light, avanti, avanti," the mayor explained. " A red light - just a suggestion." And yellow? he was asked. "Yellow is for gaiety."

Now this IS a point of view that I do appreciate, so does EVERY Tata Indica cab driver in India, just for slightly different reasons than mine.

I like the disregard for the attempt at standardisation, the complete disregard for fitting into rules created by someone I donot even know( must be by the same guys who discovered censorship) and was certainly not consulted with before implementation!

I like that mayor, I must invite him for a drink on a 'dry day' in India...and discuss his take on that!

too much ketchup

There is a thing like too much ketchup!

I saw a movie called DevD ( good movie, not brilliant) he used music as ketchup.
My 5 year old eats all 'alien' food with ketchup ( including sushi, yes, yes i know i should be embarrassed)
When BJP has to distance themselves from the Varun Gandhi ( ugh) they use rhetoric ketchup.
Karan Johar ( my faaaaaavourite, deep sigh) uses glitz as ketchup to often make a very relevant point.
Times of India ( its just a tabloid passing itself off a news paper) gives ketchup covered news updates in bullet points for even the most complex news.

But how long can you hide the taste of the distasteful with the common ketchup?
Its irritating and frankly humiliating to my intelligence AND taste.
I don't eat my dimsum with ketchup, nor do i like news with ketchup on it, I like movies who gives it to me straight ( The Eastern Promises being one)!

Its just too much ketchup.

Just lay off the ketchup...get on with it, if you have it in you....bring it on, there are still some people who can take it with the wasabi and they DONOT NEED ketchup!

chettinad gobi manchurian

I found the Chettinad Gobi Manchurian in my nearby hole in the wall chettinad restaurant.
I laughed when I saw it.
Then I realised that this is what defines India...we have NO respect for rules...we give a damn about what is right. We created the Gobi Manchurian...then it was not enough....south of Vindhyas we need our curry patta so chettinad Gobi Manchurian!

The Chettinad Gobi Manchurian describes my India-
its innovative
Its entrepreneurial
Its has no respect for other's rules (even if its only culinary)
It is deeply rooted in the local (no cookie cutter approach can get you anywhere in India)
It’s about only you!

Where else in the world do you see this embracing of the variety and the stamp of your own self in that milieu?

why we must vote

What happened in Mumbai affects me as some one who has loved and hated mumbai over the years and me as an Indian.

Me...i lost some of my friends....but then i have lost some of them to drugs, stress and bad relationships...atleast i was not embarassed at these prayer meetings. There was a hope that they did something heroic for atleast a nano second before they took the bullet...atleast some i know would have atleast said F#*K you! Ofcourse i lost two of my favourite restaurants in the country to fire...but hey, i will live!

Me Indian...i felt humiliation! I have voted every time since i was 18...i have stood everytime for my national anthem...since i can remember. I felt humiliation...that a country so large that we can send stuff to moon, cannot protect our own. Or atleast not as fast as we should. It takes 9 hours for special forces to get into the act....while our poorly equipped police force takes bullets on their necks!

Someone remind me much does the Haj and Khubmh mela subsidies cost?! And these are more important than protecting our own lives?

I will still vote and i do hope you do too....if not for someone you believe in then atleast to tell all that you dont believe in anyone. By not turning up...all you say is that 'i dont care' ! That is exactly what got us here in the first place!

The home minister didnot care enough to send in the army within an hour...some demi god did not care that the NSG took 9 hours to get to the scene...Manmohan Singh did not care to lose the dead pan ...his speech writer did not care to reassure me/ us....Mr Patil in Maharashtra did not think twice through before saying this is a 'small incident'...Mr Desmukh did not care to think if its ok to take a film director along...the list goes on.

We need to turn up and vote and then we need to demand to know whats going on. When was the last time you let your maid get away with a lunch served 2 hours late....your driver bashing the car and saying it is a 'small incident' ?

We , I as Indians need to demand accountability and need to take a little time out of another beer, another match , yet another box office hit to do this.Use the RTI...it on the net to demand accountability...or use the media( they seem to be more than willing).

After feeling humiliation and anger i attended prayer meetings and got the process of transferring my Voters Id card to the city i live in now going...far from enough...please tell me you did more!