Mundane Musings

Ho ho ho! Seasons greetings to everyone! What can I say? This is my favourite month of the year and it has delivered well this time too. Pretty ironic that is, considering I don't celebrate Christmas. The Western culture has permeated our simple Indian mindsets so much, one can't turn left or right without a red star hanging in front of our face or a skinny, plastic masked Santa prancing about in ill fitting clothes. But all is well and jolly because it is Christmas. The timing of this festival is so perfect, coinciding with New Year which incidentally the whole world celebrates with gusto. I can't see as much enthusiasm growing for our very own Tamil or Telugu New Year or the local ones in the country. They pass by in a blur of new clothes and home made treats. There is no count down say on 13th April to welcome the Tamil New Year nor is there a host of bank breaking activities planned for the Tamil New Year's eve. I have said this before too, I think the

It did feel a bit odd to be planning a family trip to Yercaud in November, bang in the midst of torrential rains. But one of the brothers was landing only then and the rest of my family thought of swinging it and face the consequences. The consequences, I am happy to report, were of the joyous kind; it is Yercaud we are talking about after all. The very Yercaud which had pulled my heart and locked it somewhere in its lush, green wild mountains when I had first visited it about 7 -8 years ago. I didn’t realise how much I would miss the sound of silence, which when punctuated by the chirping or tweeting of birds only seemed to augment the immense, humbling, wholeness of that silence. I fell in love with this small town nestled in the Shevaroyan hill range with its tiny roads that surprisingly could accommodate a good car and which had myriad trekking trails. This time I felt like I was coming home. Any doubts I had of it having changed in the interim were firmed up as we made ou

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a true prize winning book, written in that particular style that these books often come in. That said, after reading the book my most pressing urge was to re-read it -rather leisurely this time, connecting the time lines and the journeys of the various characters. When I had started to read this book, I found myself losing my attention plenty of times. I wanted to push on and finish the book, just the way I felt when I had read The Handmaid's Tale or Cloud Atlas. The latter books, both, were a beautiful read as the I moved on through the initial parts. The same too with The Narrow Road to the Deep North, only I wouldn't use the word 'beautiful' to describe this meandering, philosophical, prose-y book. At first I had trouble connecting with the Australian POWs and the back and fro movement of the story, but slowly I got caught up by the effects of this side of the war that I have

I'm presently sitting contently in front of my laptop, trying to meet some work deadlines. But all I can think of is the delicious lunch I have had an hour ago. If there is indeed a temporary heaven for gastronomically satisfied bellies and stuffed hearts then mine would already have found a place there; instead of trying to sit and make sense of words in a document and put that into some sense. The meal was a simple, home-cooked fare - rice, nachikota keerai sambar , potato fry, tomato rasam and curds. I shall leave humility aside and accept that it was a good day in the kitchen and all items were very tasty. Every element was a lip smacking addition to our meal, which by itself should have elevated the lunch to nirvana status. But for me it was the combination of the various elements on my plate that contributed to a perfect mouthful. The pairing of the right dishes that look ubiquitous on the plate but transcend all expectations when they touch the tongue and give that sock

I do this all the time... this last minute scrambling. For weeks I have been seeing ads, and more ads of the Great Indian Festival, Diwali sales and what not. I didn't budge. I snorted in disgust at this blatant attempt of conning people into spending their hard earned money. I was not going to sway. There was no necessity to, in the first place, I told myself. I don't celebrate Diwali and S was not very picky himself. So I sat through it all, until suddenly the Gang decided to come over to our place to watch fireworks for Diwali. That turned things around. From sitting on the side and smirking smugly at the whole jamboree, I now suddenly seemed to have become a part of it. I was now pushed to being a hostess. Our building is best suited for this pass time as it was bang in the center of a large North Indian population and the skyline on the days leading up to Diwali is generally lit up in giant sparkling colours. It is such fun watching the fireworks from atop th

This particular ‘month that was post’ is quite unlike the previous few happy, filled to the brim with engagements that I have to write a post kinds. The irony is not lost on me. September was my birthday month. And many things were supposed to have happened – the very air should have tingled a bit, the flowers to bloom a bit more and you know and the earth should have tilted in its axis a bit. In dread of faltering  But I started the month with a melancholy state of mind that just wouldn’t pass. Try as I might, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of uselessness and over-ratedness of the very act of living a life. The questions juts kept coming, unchecked, unwarranted...what have I achieved so far, what is there to show of 39 years on this earth, have I utilized my intelligence and smartness to the fullest, where does this motley group of friends with their idiosyncrasies and uniqueness figure in the larger picture of my life, am I setting the right goals for Anakutti, am I too uni

Howdy people! I have just beaten a bad flu and cold with a severe body pain to boot. Oh the pain...it gives me the shivers even now. I haven’t been able to do anything, leave alone exercise a few gray cells to make simple decisions. I am so glad the flu has flown away...hehehe. I have been gearing up for what was going to be a busy busy week for me with back to back training assignments happening and a content development deadline looming over my head. I had to cancel two of the training programs and have had to pump myself with antibiotics to not miss the rest. The author on the PCT Just as the flu took on its full blown avatar I managed to finish Cheryl Strayed’s amazingly written, bare-it-all book “ Wild – A Journey From Lost to Found. ” I had read the last few pages of the book just as my eyes had started watering (because of the flu, in case you were wondering) and my head started getting hammered from within. To think of leaving such a good book almost at the en

So the direction challenged, hard-to-tell-right-from-left me has used the Chennai Metro rail and lived to tell the story. Travelling by Metro was not so new to me as we did commute in all its glory when we had visited Europe in 2012. But what was different between then and now is that this is our very own spanky, new, bright-eyed skeletal frame work Chennai Metro, as against the mind-boggling colossal labyrinth seen in Europe, and this time S wasn't with me to help make sense of the direction and destination of each train. It all started when I decided to take the Metro to commute for a training assignment to DLF, Porur. The training program which will last 45 hours of 2 hours each class demanded a more reliable and cost efficient transport especially since my client was paying me all inclusive. Earlier I used to be extravagant and take the cab to and fro thereby dipping into the margin of my profits. But what can I say, I have gotten mature, and so more responsible (ahem). More

S and I, who have had helped improve business of many establishments during our dating days, are finding it very difficult to ease into the dining scene after the brief hiatus brought in by our little Anakutti. Eating out has yielded pretty unsatisfactory results with very few restaurants deeming a second visit. I can't help but wonder if it has become the norm for restaurants to dish out mediocre stuff and make the diner feel privileged to part with his hard earned money that may have not been worth the dining experience. Take the case of Double Roti in Anna Nagar East. This restaurant chain has been touted as the best sandwich/burger joint to have happened to Chennaiites and we were expected to feel happy that they had graced us with their presence. (Oh how I miss good ol Mash, this side of town).This Delhi based restaurant has earned rave reviews on Zomato, which is soon proving to be a not so trustworthy review site for a 40 year old foodie. People have been raving abou