My July Moments...

I am partial to some dates, some days and some months. Today I pick the month--July, August, November, December feature on my favourite months list. Why? I really can't explain. My birthday falls in JULY, I got married in NOVEMBER, my parents have their wedding anniversary in AUGUST..are these good enough reasons or do they make me a self-obsessed woman! AUGUST--I so like the sound of it, a feel or pride, a touch of sophistication, a royal ring to it. Now does that make me a pseudo-socialite who loves to flaunt, feature and bitch!
DECEMBER--Blame it on Jesus Christ, Santa Claus and the snow. Christmas, for me, is always what books have made it to be: snowing times, christmas trees dressed in bells and stars, Uncle Santa who comes with his goody bag, pretty cakes, delicious feast, carols and a lot of happiness and merry making. Confession: None of my Christmas memories are even remotely close to this fairy-tale white Christmas.
A lot of my favouritism, I think, can be blamed on my 'love for the rains'. July, August, November are all rainy days. Cloudy mornings, grey evenings that come alive with sparks of lightning and thuds of thunder. Not the best of things if you have a new born at home, who's out to win the 'Who pees the most' contest!?! Laundry is a horror during these times, shopping isn't exactly all-fun either, and the traffic barely moves...but everything else is oh-so-gorgeous. The plants look greener than ever, are topped with droplets of rainwater, the air smells fresher and happier, the roads look cleaner, the dogs, cats, birds all are at their laziest (the pigeons find shelter on our window sill, which my little one so loves, while the cats and dogs curl up in the car porch or under the sofas or some other cosy corner).

The rains have swept me away from the shores of my thoughts. This blog wasn’t meant to be about my picks from the 12. It has been a long break from blogging (excepting the one tiny make-my-presence-felt blog). This one was to be about the month of July, its happenings and what kept me too busy to blog. July--being the month that welcomed me into this world--definitely makes me Smile. Lately though, the smile has become a bit low-voltage coz it also meant that I was now entering the 30s-club. That year has passed and now am happily 31 and enjoying it.

Now when I try to recount the just-passed July, I am a little blank. I am certain there were a few exciting things.
Had a wedding (where people were more obsessed about my weight gain than the wedding itself)--Not Exciting.
Finally finished my driving classes--Exciting. But sold our car--Not Exciting.
Missed a family function--Not Exciting. Instead did a weekend Mumbai trip, a fun time with friends, lots of kids, cakes, booze and some airport drama--Very Very Exciting.
Birthday morning! Woke up to mom's birthday wish (love you, amma) followed by lovely lovely friends who called/messaged/Facebook-ed birthday wishes--Wonderfully Exciting. Partner forgot my birthday--Not Exciting. First birthday where I got no gifts or surprises--Awfully Non-Exciting (and am still crying over it).My loving dad took me out for dinner, the only special part of the day. Nothing too fancy but good food and a play area for the little one--Exciting End.

Cousins came over. Had a Tequila night--Very Exciting.
Dinner at neighbour's place. Awesome food, good drinks, delicious biriyani and some fun times--Enjoyably Exciting.


This is all I can recall for now. 31 days and according to my statistics more Exciting than Non-Exciting moments. Good!
Oh, No! How could I forget that special Saturday. TATTOO Saturday. Finally, after a wait for almost 10 years, I find the courage and opportunity to live my desire. Now I have a pretty black butterfly (with shades of red) sitting pretty on my left arm. I am kicked about it, my mom found it cool (though she wished it had more colours), dad smiled at it, partner acted like he didn't notice it, and my son loves it... he's just a little scared to touch it coz he thinks its gonna fly away like the many butterflies he's seen so far!
This has got to be the defining moment of July 2010. My Tattoo--my birthday gift to myself.
 

Succulent Steaks, Tempting Tandooris

I was born into a vegetarian family (not quite the right way to put it). Well my family belongs to a class (one of the many classes of one of the many religions) that is vegetarian (don't know if its by choice or compulsion). Ideally our menu should contain rice, its variations like idli, dosa, the kanji (which I relish) and the sambar, rasam, pulissery, erissery and many more names that may not sound exciting but is definitely delicious. Garlic is a strict no-no and many elders in my family don't take onions either. Onions & garlic are believed to be for the carnivorous. Today, 95 per cent of my dishes begin with a onion-tomato saute with a dash of ginger-garlic.
Coming back to my 'green' lineage, I had a taste of the animal kingdom when I was barely four years old or so I am told. My mother's help, who was my favourite, would feed me yummy fish curry and tiny pieces of chicken. They believed kids grew strong and smart only by eating strong creatures and not flimsy plants and leaves. By the time my taste buds were independent enough to choose for itself, their preference was clearly the meaty meals.
I owe it to my mom, who, despite being a complete vegetarian actually attended cookery classes and cooked me exotic dishes like Garlic Chicken, Chilly Chicken, Chicken Manchurian, Sweet n Sour Chicken....and many many delicious puddings too. Lovely auntys would always send me a share of home-cooked non-veg yummies they made and my love for them only grew. Dine outs were eagerly awaited for that meant newer dishes of chicken/fish.
Somehow my temptation for non-veg stopped at chicken and fish. Mutton, beef, pork (which I was often told were the more yummier meatier options) never excited me. I was never even tempted to try. Maybe my tastebuds weren't too adventurous. But then you could serve me mutton and say its chicken, I wouldn't quite know. :)
Years of eating this banned-food hasn't in any way decreased my greed for it. While I relished on butter chicken, chilly chicken, etc earlier, now I have developed a craving for the grills/kebabs and tandoors. Continental is my new favourite: grilled chicken with pepper sauce/mushroom sauce, chicken satay, steaks and the Indian options like tandoori chicken, kebabs have me drooling. Not much of a cook myself, I have been trying to inspire myself to try a grill or bake at home. Many of my more skilled friends say grills and bakes are the easiest and safest. Somehow the idea scares me. Once marinated and ready, you need to push into the oven and then all you can do is watch helplessly and pray it turns out fine. But I have promised myself I will try my hand at it very soon.

Every time I tune into a channel, I find a cookery show on and then find myself glued to it. The expressions on their face, the words they use to describe the food, the smoke n sound from the grills and pans have me letting out a deep sigh! Something about the succulent just makes me want to grab that piece right outta the chef's hand.

My dil goes Mmmmm....

Is it the realisation that summer's here that's made me take this sudden but lasting craving for ice-creams. In the past one week, I've scooped a variety of flavours from a range of brands. Some tried-tested-and-loved flavours, some new experiments, some chosen by smells or colours...but everything had to have at least a drizzle of my ever-favourite choc sauce. It's a must-have. I think it's a sin not to let the choc sauce flow its way over the ice-cream giving it this awesome design pattern and tempting look.
I was never much of an ice-cream person. After watching Salaam Namaste where Preity Zinta craves for a "certain" flavour of ice-cream at midnight and how the adorable Saif tours the town in search of it...I used to actually visualise myself doing the same. Though I did doubt that my husband wouldn't be half as enthusiastic as Saif when it came to missing his sleep. Pregnancy came, but ice-creams never topped my "I want it right now" list. At least then I could have had them without guilt and family would have bought me them all without a fuss.

Now there's the guilt after eating a bowl, and there is the fuss before buying a pack. I was always this chocolaty person who refused to even try out other flavours until it had a choco mentioned somewhere in the name. But during my latest romance with ice-cream, I have consciously avoided the brown temptation. In fact I turned away from flavours simply because they were guilty of adding choc to their names (though the ice cream itself showed no sign of any chocolaty touch). And I've just found my new favourite: Fig. Just polished one bowl of it...and loved every bit. Even licked clean every inch of the bowl. Yummmm...though it left me with a sticky nose and cheeks.
My new icy-creamy romance isn't suiting my weighing scale. Every time I down a scoop, my mom gives me the looks and reels out ways to work out excess kilos. I try to turn a deaf ear by her words fall loud n strong straight into my ear drums...and worse keep echoing in there until sleep time. Yes I do wanna take her seriously and get going, be committed to my promise of weight loss (all my deadlines are way behind me now). Am doing another round of promise to myself.. let's see who wins, the ice-cream or the weighing machine.