happy friday thoughts!

• What joy when you start your day with the perfect tea! I suck at making my own tea. Everyday, something is amiss or in excess. So I made my own perfect tea today, with the right amount of adrak (ginger), sugar, milk and tea powder! yay! You have no idea how important it is to get your tea perfect, early in the morning.

• Another friend has given birth to a healthy baby girl and I am filled with more joy! Of course, I have to wait for next 6-7 months to be actually able to play with her. Because, I am terrified at the thought of handling infants. I am pretty sure I will hold them incorrectly and do something awful. sigh.

• I learnt and made an amazing new, fun chutney yesterday! A kashmiri friend posted it on facebook (not sure if its a kashmiri recipe though!) Take anar dana (pomegranate seeds), add lime juice, chaat masala, brown sugar, fresh ginger (all based on your instincts and according to taste, its a chutney after all!) and grind them together, till a coarse paste is formed. Add salt to taste. Serve it chilled with a dash of spring onions and cilantro (my addition to the chutney). Tastes yum, looks healthy and appetizing! My version without a mixer here - http://instagram.com/p/OrOAylLv_C/
• Even though this is a happy thoughts post, I will share my latest pet peeve. People/girls/boys who create a physical mess on the kitchen counter and don't give a damn about cleaning it up later! If I leave aside the one or two times, that one may actually be feeling lazy/under the weather to do the cleaning immediately, I don't understand why one would leave things in a state of mess! Again, I know why I am like this! Since bachpan (childhood) I have been taught/trained (later expected to) finish work at hand, including the side jobs. And I have seen aai making sure everything was tidy and in its place in the kitchen, after all the chores were done. (these are remote factors in making sure I completed my studies/courses. Despite the urge to leave things halfway/undone during grad school. Its a compulsive need now!).

• Also everyday my belief in the fact that people who don't know you (or don't want to spend the effort in knowing you) get intimidated easily/talk behind your back easily. I do not mind it. A bit. The only thing I am happy about is, if you do not want to know me and rather be intimidated by me, you should also realize that its beneficial for me, cos I no more have to deal with close minded people (:P) (tanvi has done a super post here on a related note!)

• And how talented is Ranbir Kapoor! <3 <3 

~nightflier

Mukta, Warkaris and Vari

Mukta - marathi movie starring Sonali Kulkarni, Vikram Gokhle, Shriram Lagoo (available on youtube if you are into regional movies. This one cannot be missed**! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Z-KaJbt_8)
W(not V)arkari (वारकरी ) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varkari


I was always fascinated by the saints of Maharashtra. Dnyaneshwar in particular. Because he was so young when he wrote for the universal goodness and peace of people in his plea to god (called pasaaydaan पसायदान in marathi) and translated the Geeta for common people. To a younger me, all this seemed very cool. 
And then my impressionable mind (which is still impressionable but with different standards ;)) watched Mukta. Though the movie has a socio-political setting and talks about caste systems, growing up, what I found really fascinating in the film was how Mukta's african friend from America goes on a Vari* (वारी ) with her grandfather. 


*vari - its an annual pilgrimage the warkaris take to a town called Pandharpur, where they carry the 'paaduka' (पादुका ) of the saints to their god, viththal, incarnation of vishnu.
Interesting tale about viththal (विठ्थल ). He once went to visit his devoted follower saint Namdeo. Namdeo was busy serving his parents. So he took a brick and threw it for the god to sit on. It is said that the god waited for his devotee by standing on the brick. His idols in temple can be seen that way, still waiting for the devotee.  


In the movie that vaari, the journey is symbolic for our internal conflict between praying to a black god but not accepting people around us. It's incredibly meditating. But I am still blown away by a journey people take on foot, to meet their god. I am repeatedly told at home, that my belief in god is highly questionable as I do not do certain things. Of course, on some level, I don't care. But some time down the line the boho, wanderer in me wants to take this spiritual journey on foot. 


Today as most of the streets in the city were getting blocked and traffic diverted, to accommodate these travelers and make their journey comfortable, my mind was crowded by all these thoughts. Of course work, then actually finding time to write all this down, has taken down the intensity of what I felt.


But in the rush of day to day things, I am glad I *felt* those things. By this simple phenomenon of traffic diversion.


~nightflier


** of course now I think of it, Sonali kulkarni has a hammy accent in the movie. And also does not quite look 17-18 in few scenes. But anyway worth the watch because it is not gimmicky and uses rural india setting in the most genuine, heart warming way.

Of brother and father

This is the form 16 season in India. Pardon me, if its way past. For me its still going on. 
* form 16 something like the W-2 receipts in the US. (I think)


The thing with me is I am not exactly Annie Hall. I know I just get super lazy with such stuff. Its inertia or some genetic hard wiring gone wrong. May be. So this year I happened to change jobs and hence went through the anxiety of a lot of paper work. In between, the wallet theft with almost all important ids happened. So more paper work. And to get all that done without baba's help was already feeling like an achievement to the child in me. (I cannot see myself totally grown up from their perspective.)


And then this new argument over why I haven't received rather asked for this form from previous employer. 
I was slightly amused to see my brother at the forefront of this fretting and arguing. I not only got a lecture as to why I should show some haste but also got told that the consequences of such lax in such kind of paper work is normally not good for one's financial health. 
Since baba retired officially from work, I have seen a gradual change in his 'letting go of control ways'. He doesn't pester us much about any such thing anymore. Few years back, I am sure it would have been he trying to tell me the importance of having all the documents in place. Now I think he is cool with us learning the lessons on our own or even not learning. :)


More assuring is how brother has taken his place and I can see someone who will make sure that I  am not careless with 'such important' stuff in life.


~nightflier