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.

Nights of blogging...and blank mornings

Am not sure who invented the concept of blogging? When and how was this word coined and what was its actual purpose. Is it just a space (mostly public) for you to give words to your thoughts, emotions and express yourself for all to see and read! But still maintain a certain anonymity coz blogs don't necessarily need to have your name (as on the birth certificate), you could always be identified as the 'madnessisme.blogspot' or 'sunshineandrain.blogspot' or 'compulsiveconfessions' or 'thesinner.blogspot'. You could have anything from a cartoon to a film star to a notebook or a pair of glasses as your profile pic.
Coming to me..why did I start blogging? I can't exactly recall but I think it started shortly after I quit my regular office work. Left with a lot of time, too many thoughts rummaging my mind and no one to share it with (poor me was home alone with a growing tummy and didn't think it right to overburden the little life inside with the stresses, pressures and exaggerations of life in this world). Maybe it was then...that I decided to join the blogosphere, a term that was alien to me until then.
Naming the blog was the first step. I didn't really spend too much time on it coz I was definitely not in my most creative or wacky moods then. So I settled for 2 things I can't do without: coffee and myself. And thus was born cuppacoffeeandme.blogspot.com. I would have liked to add a lot more favourites to it like rain, the chill, books...but it's fine. Coffee it is...The name doesn't in any way signify the contents within. Do not expect steamy write-ups or burning desires or frothy dreams...it's just me chatting with myself.
In the start I was on an over-drive..writing new posts whenever I could. Don't think it what really my mind speaking then..it was more about me trying to make my presence felt and make blogging part of my routine. Soon the excitement fizzled out and the posts were drying up...from one a day to one a week, then a few lines a month and then months of no blogging at all. Every few months I would do this blog revival post promising to be more faithful to this space but never happened.
In the recent months, I developed this sudden re-interest in blogging and I find myself wanting to write or actually having something to write very often. The blog's in my mind always and I find myself making mental notes of things/people/experiences that I want to write about. Many nights in the recent weeks I find myself lying in bed (am a struggler when it comes to getting sleep) playing my blog in my mind...thinking of what to write and even framing sentences..almost like I am out to make an impression and someone's watching me and marking me on the basis of my blogs, its relevance, its presentation, etc. It's funny! Coz if the comments link is any indication of the clicks on my blog then I have barely any readers. Just 1-2 faithful friends.
It is a little disappointing when you see no response to your blogs, though you (in this case ME) claim blogs just a space to speak your mind and you're not really bothered about its popularity, etc. Despite this, I find myself inspired to write more and doing the 'mental blog note' every night. Sadly the mornings have me struggling to recollect my 'late night blog thoughts' and often I draw a blank.
I have a faint feeling that I had done a version of this blog too in my mind...with more impressive sentences and stronger words. For now...this is all my mind could gather.

The stories within a dusty album...

A small, but not too light, black (mostly) rectangular box-like gadget with a round lens in front, a few buttons on the top or side, an extra square block of light called the "flash", a coma-like fixture that was the rewind button...this is my first image of a camera. One had to slide open its back and insert a film roll (an act I still haven't perfected), close it, do a random 1-2 clicks to check if all's well and you're ready to go. What I loved most was how the tiny almost dot-like number screen jumped everytime a click was made. Most film rolls gave you a maximum of 36 clear pictures, while some would give you a bonus of 1 or 2 more pictures.
The film roll was the most crucial element of the camera, and also often the most forgotten. How many of us can recall at least one incident wherein we went click, click, click only to realise we had forgotten to 'load' the camera!
Soon the blacks gave way to brighter, more attractive colours, that came in lightweight forms, especially for kids. The shapes too had minor alterations: oval, cartoon characters, etc. Bu the mechanism basically remained the same: load batteries, load film, do a check click, and of course do not forget to rewind after the clicks. Soon there were auto rewind models introduced which would do the job automatically once the film roll was complete.
The rolls showed only a series of blackish greyish images, and we'd rush to the studio to give color n life to these images. There's this exciting wait for a few days, wherein we are hoping the photographs turn out just the way we want and secretly praying that all our un-impressive shots get magically developed into stunners. The minute we get the cover with the photographs, all heads n hands come together. Soon there are giggles, laughter, comments, exclamatory sighs and wows...For days we'd be checking out the photographs, and enjoying the moments.
Somehow my father never was too keen on cameras or was it that he didn't enjoy photography at all. But I have seen some interesting pictures of his from his long-haired, side-burn-style college days to the more refined, Ray Ban-wearing business man days and now to the khadi-clad, salt n pepper bearded grandfather days. Guess he preferred being a model to photographer and so never quite felt the need to own a camera. But I did manage to find one when I needed, thanks to loving uncles and friends. Today the images gifted by those cameras lie suffocated in thick albums, stacked away in some dusty corner of some shelf in my room. Until a few years ago, I did flip through them occasionally and it never once failed to ignite a spark of nostalgia in me. Almost all the pictures had a story to tell: of friendship, fights, after-fight handshakes, lovers' tiff, childhood romances, secret crushes, favourite teachers...and of course the now-shocking haircuts and dresses.
Today film rolls are almost extinct. Digital cameras that are sleek, colorful, higher in clarity and absolutely easy to use have taken over. Today the process is much simpler, No film rolls, no rewind buttons, no running to studios and of course no albums to gather dust. It's just click and view. And if you aren't happy, you can just delete it and re-shoot. Very few get transferred to actual prints, while most others get 'posted' onto 'online albums' like Picasa, Kodak Gallery, etc. Definitely far more easier and faster, but the spontaneity and fun of the moment is lost because most snaps are rehearsed and perfected.
Many of my friends have, in the recent days, been 'uploading' albums titled Back then, Good Ol' Days, Nostalgia, etc...and each of them is a collection of snapshots from the past, some blurred, some hazy images of the days bygone. The clarity is missing, but the emotion is alive. Thank you my loved ones for once again taking me back in time when people had more time, when life was simpler, more fun, less pretentious, and relationships were wrapped in emotions, love, sensitivity, and some crazy drama too. Cheers to the good times!


(PS: I will put up some pics from the good times as soon as I retrieve them from their dusty dungeon.)

Blue in its many shades, many moods

Monday blues...Feeling Blue...Blue is often used to describe dullness, disappointment and everything un-exciting. Why! Oh Why! I love blue..blue brightens my day. It's a soother for the sore eyes, it spreads a feel of calm, it's warm yet wild. I love BLUE.
Blue isn't just about boredom, neither is it about pornography. Which prompts me to wonder...why are porno films categorised as "blue films". What's blue gotta do with orgy and orgasms? I can think of many other colours that would more aptly scream out those emotions.
Well.. erotic for some, exhaustion for some... for me BLUE spells warm welcome, a calm cool, a silent drizzle, soulful music, a devastating darkness, inviting intoxication and a wild sparkle.

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.