Bon Appetit!

Joe, the chef in café, and I are friends of sorts. I like the food he whips out and I mostly end up at his kiosk, so he got used to seeing me and I got used to telling him how I liked my lunch. For the past few weeks I didn’t get a chance to head to café and ended up at vending machines, soup cans, friends bringing me lunch and all that.

After a long break, I headed down to café today and he was so pleased to see me, he came out of his kiosk and walked to the one where I was at, cooked lunch for me, while he was grilling my chicken, we had a lovely chat about family, love, life, divorces, work. Apparently after 20 yrs of being married, he separated from his wife.
As he was wrapping my lunch with extra condiments, he asks me “Are you from the city?"
Naah...i replied.
"Has to be New York, then?”
I smiled and asked “why, do you think that, Joe?”,
Naah….you have THAT city spunk, like a NY girl!
I couldn’t help but laugh it off. Spunk huh!

He cooked an extra steak of chicken for me, and added the hot sauce just as I like it.

His well grilled chicken sandwich for a city gal was yummy (as taran says yummy in my tummy). It brought a smile to me as i thought of our candid conversation. Thanks Joe!

How American are you?

I'm not a efficient grocery shopper. I buy only what i need and what i see will be used. Even if the bread i so like is offering the second one free, if i buy one, i woulnt pick it. The guilt that i'm contributing to wastefully wasting food doesnt sit well with me. The other day, i was at the store and picking potatoes, very clearly it said, Buy One, get the other bag free. I gracefully walked away, but the guy who was stocking the bananas next to me, saw that i was walking away with out my free bag of spuds, and felt free to tell me that i shouldnt forget the free bag.

Instead of trying to explain my stance, running short of time, i reluctanly picked my extra bag of potatoes. So now i ended up with 10 pounds of alu, by god! i barely go thru the 5 what was i goign to do with the extra 5.

The next day, i shamelessly offered my friend, that extra bag of it. As much as she appreciated, she was curious, why was i bringing her some vegetable. Now that i had time on hand, i explained to her the best way i could, that i'm not too big on taking the second bag of a vegetable or bread - which i just paid for the first one. How am i to consume all of it. I've let many such deals go past me in the past, this isnt the first time - Cheese, bread, cookies, softdrinks.

A guy with last name Hamm, overheard our conversation and said, "Now, that is very un-american!"...Ha! bite me - was going to be my reply, but i smiled and shrugged.

What would you do? 

Ghalib in my life....

Di-e-nadaan tujhey hua kya hai

Akhir iss dard ki dawa kya hai

Humko unse wafaa ki hai umeed

Jo nahi jaante wafaa kya hai ....

When my sister was seriously ill and we all flew to see her in Melbourne, few years ago, I remember walking down the halls with a 2 month taran in tow, up and down the hall. Because, the nurses wouldnt allow a infant in the ICU. So between me and my mom, my dad, we would take turns nursing, napping taran, changing him everything in the hospital. All this when we werent caring for my brand new nephew Asad.

But as my sister got better, she was changed to a maternity section, we noticed by the end of every week, Jijju or I would be running to the store to buy the infant formula, one day, lunoo said, how come the formula is running out so quickly, shouldnt it be lasting for over 2-3 weeks the least, a visiting friend Cherrie wondered maybe they are using the formlua for other kids in the ward. To that my dad replied, if then it's all going to the right use, so what if it's not just our baby.

Something about that struck with me. He saw through the most simplest form of things. During dad's ...... a blind man from VJY came by to give respects. How did he know dad i asked, oh well, he's the only man who'd buy me tea and biscuits when he was passing by. They both grew to know each other and befriended.

While driving back home the other day, I was heavily reflecting on few incidents and felt, Greatness is in the simplicity of life. It comes in recognizing and acknowledging the simple acts of life, the kindness, the courteousness, the patience in the most impatient of times, the grace - there lies the true greatness the people are remembered with and of. One can be the most intelligent Astronaut, a scientist, top bureaucrat - but it all only comes to life only when traits of simple nature reflect in thoughts as well as actions happen.



My all time fave song. there is no link to my title and my blog, lol, but i'm so in love with my dad's collection of Ghalib's cassettes that i sneaked from his dear music ensemble. Love you baba, i want you to know that i miss you terribly.

The Noir ones

Few weeks ago, i saw Gulaal. The movie takes you to so many levels of lives that you may or may not come across. But the dark beauty of that movie can leave you with many questions. I dont know, for many weeks i've been trying to come up with right sum of words to express and am falling short of it. He has his own genre, one has to dig deep in their own worlds of parallel lives, to come up with such brilliance. His characters justify the essence of sacrificing unapologetically others sentiments for their self interests.

I think i got introed to Mr. Anurag Kashyap by the way of - hmm...was it "No smoking"....John abraham finds himslef in the midst of Russian military, i think, in a bathtub, in the middle of nowhere in snow...the abstractness and the eccentricity of the movie....made me fall in respect with Mr. K. Dev D is another one of my fave.

My first taste of offbeat movies that i can remember of is Salaam Bombay by M. Nair. I could never shake it off even to this day, the way, the pimp, Nana Patekar, whips his belt out and starts hitting the floor where the street kid w/ chai is standing. The sheer power that ass is feeling by exposing the helplessness of the kid - gives me quivers even to this day. ( ha i found the vid).



Some of my other fave movies of this genre are: Mandi, Hazaaron Khwaishey Aisi, Bazaar, Paar, City of Joy, Ardh Satya, Mirza Ghalib, Tamas (on DD, on sundays i remember watching this with my baba, after this he'd take me on his scooter to the market in RJY to buy veggies and meat.), another one,  Cant remember the name of the movie but Girish Karnad is the landlord and shabana azmi ends up as his mistress, Mirch Masala - uff the list is endless. What are your fave's?