Mundane Musings

On Saturday we were invited for a cake mixing ceremony in ITC Grand Chola. Since it was my first, I immediately jumped in. Those who read this blog regularly would know that I get kind of high on life in the latter half of the year with a punchy culmination for New Year's. Colourful dry fruits and nuts waiting to be added A cake mixing ceremony kickstarts the cake making preparations for Christmas in many restaurants. A Christmas cake or plum cake is baked or steamed before Christmas and is packed beautifully or wrapped with love and distributed to friends and relatives just like platters of sweets and savouries are distributed for Eid or for Diwali. Dear friend Cee, hosts a lovely Christmas party every year and after Ana kutti turned two she made it a point to invite us to baking the cakes too. I was happy to help her out with baking batches of the dark, fragrant cake and licking ladles clean after all the work was completed. To date, Ana kutti makes it a point to ask me ...

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 ...

We are at the fag end of the year. The Christmas plum cake with its rich, fruity taste and texture has been savoured and toasts have been made for the New Year too, which of course still a few days off. There is something magical in this month. I love this month and after much deliberation I concluded that it was mostly because of the prevailing climate. After a harsh summer and chaotic rains, Chennai settles down to a cool, tender climate which begs the pulling out of moth eaten sweaters that smell of naphthalene balls (not always a bad thing), the crisp, beautiful silks and the thick woollen tops which are generally reserved for travels abroad or to cooler climes. The cool air is redolent with smell of cinnamon and chai and of hot crispy vadas and filter coffee (which of course is a staple the whole year too). In other words, it is the closest we come to sharing the white, snowy, cold Christmas setting that prevails over the parts of the world where it is celebrated. ...

Last week I got caught in the mother of all jams. In all my life of riding my bike I am yet to have come across one that physically sapped me like the one I endured that day, on my way to office. I can safely say that the speedometer refused to climb above 10km/hr for a stretch of 6 kms. As I sat on my bike, fuming and mentally cursing no body in particular, I thought about ways to keep myself occupied. If it was another lucky day I’d have had my mp3 plugged to my ears rendering soulful songs. But alas! When this super infuriating jam was to take place how in the world could fate have rewarded me with a comfortable portal that’d transport me to another blissful world? So I sat on my bike, studiously avoiding glances of curious fellow travelers who seem to think the best way to beat the jam is to look at what people were doing while waiting out the clearance of congestion. So I decided to watch the vehicles instead. Lo and behold I saw an impressive dark blue Nissan Xtrail parked next...