Today I bought 2 half Kg plum cakes from the GRT Grand hotel, T.Nagar.
It is a practice to buy plum cakes for X'Mas. We consume small portions and make it last for about a week until New Year.
I have always been fond of plum cakes as it brings back fond memories of my childhood days spent in Hyderabad.
My mother used to buy those wonderful tasting plum cakes from John's Bakery in Gunfoundry near Grammar's School. They were so delightful to taste with so many dry fruits, cherries and spices in them. One big slice was enough to send us kids reeling for sometime, thanks to the generous quantities of alchohol like rum, gin, etc. which goes into making of those rich plum cakes.
My sons share my love for it and were sorely missed for the past two X'mas celebrations as they were away at Edinburgh. This year I was feeling sad while picking up those cakes. But I hear they are heading back home so the plums will have to wait until they arrive. It will be a joyous moment to see them relish plum cakes at home after nearly 3 years now.
Merry X'Mas.
Mahalakshmi
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Scent of New Books
While studying in the school, we sisters used to look forward to our maternal uncle buying us new books from Sri Rama Book Depot in Hyderabad.
They always arrived in bundles of note books of all kinds - the square book for maths, the double ruled for handwriting, the single ruled for notes, the one side blank page for science notes where diagrams were drawn on the blank adjacent sheet, then graph books. Text books in English, Hindi, Telugu whatever were prescribed for the various classes in which we sisters were studying.
Note books would be distributed out of the bundle to each according to the numbers recommended by the school for each class. Smaller brown sheets would be cut from larger sheets and labels given. We will set ourselves with the task of covering and labelling all our books. The text books too would get new covers. This was a process and team work. We had such fun doing all this together.
The best handwriting would adorn the labels. It would have the name, class, section and subject written.
I would open each and every book and read what I could. My favourite would always be the English Text Book and the Moral Science Book. I would finish reading all the stories in them in no time and go on to read my elder sisters' text books as well, out of curiosity and interest.
The peculiar scent from turning of those new pages would be so nice, that I would keep turning them until they lost their newness. They were like the first drops of rain hitting earth to produce a wonderful moist smell.
What beautiful days were those.
Mahalakshmi
They always arrived in bundles of note books of all kinds - the square book for maths, the double ruled for handwriting, the single ruled for notes, the one side blank page for science notes where diagrams were drawn on the blank adjacent sheet, then graph books. Text books in English, Hindi, Telugu whatever were prescribed for the various classes in which we sisters were studying.
Note books would be distributed out of the bundle to each according to the numbers recommended by the school for each class. Smaller brown sheets would be cut from larger sheets and labels given. We will set ourselves with the task of covering and labelling all our books. The text books too would get new covers. This was a process and team work. We had such fun doing all this together.
The best handwriting would adorn the labels. It would have the name, class, section and subject written.
I would open each and every book and read what I could. My favourite would always be the English Text Book and the Moral Science Book. I would finish reading all the stories in them in no time and go on to read my elder sisters' text books as well, out of curiosity and interest.
The peculiar scent from turning of those new pages would be so nice, that I would keep turning them until they lost their newness. They were like the first drops of rain hitting earth to produce a wonderful moist smell.
What beautiful days were those.
Mahalakshmi
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Congress Party And Onions - Made For Each Other
The Congress party in India has a strong connection with onions!
They are 'Made For Each Other'.
The onion which goes into most gravies, curries, subzis, is an all-time favorite of the Indian masses with the exception of a section of staunch jains, practising ISKON devotees and some brahmins.
The onion succeeds in opening up the tear ducts of the masses but it has always made the congress party of India, shed tears of joy!
Onions have never failed to come to the rescue of the Congress whenever it was in trouble.
Who can forget the supporting role that onions played in the 1980 elections which brought Indira Gandhi to power.
History repeated itself in 1998 and 2003 elections when onions played a major role in reversing many a fortunes.
During the recent couple of months, when too many scams were causing great embarrassment to the power at the centre, the onion has come as a great relief and diversion. The masses are more concerned with the sudden soaring of onion prices than the lakhs of crores reportedly siphoned to offshore destinations through the hawala, all thanks to 2G.
Thanks to an active exchange of views on the net people cannot be fooled forever.
Smart people will buy less onions.
They will substitute onions with some other vegetable.
They will invest in the sattvic recipes' book published by the ISKON Centre which has no use for onions in any of those divine recipes.
Boycott purchasing onions.
The curtains are drawn for next year's elections.
Mahalakshmi.
They are 'Made For Each Other'.
The onion which goes into most gravies, curries, subzis, is an all-time favorite of the Indian masses with the exception of a section of staunch jains, practising ISKON devotees and some brahmins.
The onion succeeds in opening up the tear ducts of the masses but it has always made the congress party of India, shed tears of joy!
Onions have never failed to come to the rescue of the Congress whenever it was in trouble.
Who can forget the supporting role that onions played in the 1980 elections which brought Indira Gandhi to power.
History repeated itself in 1998 and 2003 elections when onions played a major role in reversing many a fortunes.
During the recent couple of months, when too many scams were causing great embarrassment to the power at the centre, the onion has come as a great relief and diversion. The masses are more concerned with the sudden soaring of onion prices than the lakhs of crores reportedly siphoned to offshore destinations through the hawala, all thanks to 2G.
Thanks to an active exchange of views on the net people cannot be fooled forever.
Smart people will buy less onions.
They will substitute onions with some other vegetable.
They will invest in the sattvic recipes' book published by the ISKON Centre which has no use for onions in any of those divine recipes.
Boycott purchasing onions.
The curtains are drawn for next year's elections.
Mahalakshmi.
Here's The Invitaton But Don't Come!
There are instances where people come over to invite my mother personally saying she's the eldest living member in our family. That they need her blessings for this function or that event. Yet in her presence they cite an example of a person who is younger than her by 5 or 6 years to be too sick to attend the occasion and how one should be cautious about one's health and never travel at all! In short they make sure to get across the message that she should not take the personal invitation too seriously and actually attend the function! After hearing such sermons no sane person will take their invitations too seriously. At least I won't.
Why come all the way to invite personally only to say such things? Why waste an invitation card at all? And what about our time and theirs too?
I have a tough time convincing my mother that such invitations are just for namesake and not meant to be really taken seriously by her. She lives in the past and places a lot of affection on her relatives and their families.
Three weddings in three families of her late sister. Two grooms are the great grandsons and one bride is a great grand daughter.
My mom was sentimental about attending the wedding. She and my dad had married off 4of her elder sister's grandsons and granddaughters twenty five years back (the rituals part only) .... now it was their children's weddings she wanted to attend.
I booked two tickets for both of us yet I was so reluctant to go there as the vibes were not positive at all.
It was as if the families were worried that my mom would actually come down to attend those weddings. There were many reasons like she is too old to travel from Chennai to Hyderabad or to Bangalore. She must not fall down and break her hip bones or fracture her limbs during travel. In whose house will she stay...
I booked rooms at the Taj Mahal hotel on SP Road, Secunderabad as that was nearer to the marriage venue and staying was not an issue at all with hotels all over cities now.
I had no heart in attending. Mom was so enthusiastic about her travel, she had packed all her things a week before the journey! I could not break her heart either. So I prayed to God to rescue me from this agony of travelling for her sake only.
Chennai had a stint of heavy rains just for the 2 days before our journey. We were to travel on the 17th Nov, rest in the hotel room on the 18th and attend the wedding on the 19th and board the train, the same day.
It rained so badly on the 14th, 15th and 16th that I asked my mom whether she still wanted to go. She said cancel the tickets and I gladly obliged. I knew God was on my side and din't want me to go to a wedding in which people were not sincere about wanting our presence.
Similar was the case of the wedding at Bangalore, in January this year. The invitation was delivered personally but the body language, the instances quoted while inviting us, about how the elderly should not travel, etc., indicated that it was a formal and social obligation which was being enacted without meaning a word of it.
If you think these 2 invitations were instances of taking the 'cake' then I want to share taking the 'bakery' episode from the same family!
The father of the groom rang up the relatives to inform that his son was getting married on such and such date at Chennai. He wanted to 'inform' about the marriage and asked relatives not to attend the wedding! When the relatives questioned why at all he wanted to even inform when he din't mean to invite them, he said, he din't want the relatives to 'hear' of the marriage through some other outside source! I appreciated the bakery approach much better.
1. The Bangalore party's inviation clearly said 'no' to any gifts for their son. So we din't give anything.
2. There was no question of any gift for the party who just wanted us to be 'informed'.
3. We sent across a gift of cash for the Hyderabad party and in turn they sent across a saree for my mom and some wedding sweets. After we rang to thank them, they shared some wedding photos through the mail! The other two din't share even the wedding photos!!
I check for positive signals whenever we are invited for any occasion by others. I have been to a wedding where the family had just mentioned their sincere desire for us to be present at their son's wedding in Chennai, promisig to send us the invitation which never arrived. But we attended the wedding anyway!
So its not the case of just receiving the invitation card.
It is whether the invitation comes from their heart.
Mahalakshmi.
Mahalakshmi.
Why come all the way to invite personally only to say such things? Why waste an invitation card at all? And what about our time and theirs too?
I have a tough time convincing my mother that such invitations are just for namesake and not meant to be really taken seriously by her. She lives in the past and places a lot of affection on her relatives and their families.
Three weddings in three families of her late sister. Two grooms are the great grandsons and one bride is a great grand daughter.
My mom was sentimental about attending the wedding. She and my dad had married off 4of her elder sister's grandsons and granddaughters twenty five years back (the rituals part only) .... now it was their children's weddings she wanted to attend.
I booked two tickets for both of us yet I was so reluctant to go there as the vibes were not positive at all.
It was as if the families were worried that my mom would actually come down to attend those weddings. There were many reasons like she is too old to travel from Chennai to Hyderabad or to Bangalore. She must not fall down and break her hip bones or fracture her limbs during travel. In whose house will she stay...
I booked rooms at the Taj Mahal hotel on SP Road, Secunderabad as that was nearer to the marriage venue and staying was not an issue at all with hotels all over cities now.
I had no heart in attending. Mom was so enthusiastic about her travel, she had packed all her things a week before the journey! I could not break her heart either. So I prayed to God to rescue me from this agony of travelling for her sake only.
Chennai had a stint of heavy rains just for the 2 days before our journey. We were to travel on the 17th Nov, rest in the hotel room on the 18th and attend the wedding on the 19th and board the train, the same day.
It rained so badly on the 14th, 15th and 16th that I asked my mom whether she still wanted to go. She said cancel the tickets and I gladly obliged. I knew God was on my side and din't want me to go to a wedding in which people were not sincere about wanting our presence.
Similar was the case of the wedding at Bangalore, in January this year. The invitation was delivered personally but the body language, the instances quoted while inviting us, about how the elderly should not travel, etc., indicated that it was a formal and social obligation which was being enacted without meaning a word of it.
If you think these 2 invitations were instances of taking the 'cake' then I want to share taking the 'bakery' episode from the same family!
The father of the groom rang up the relatives to inform that his son was getting married on such and such date at Chennai. He wanted to 'inform' about the marriage and asked relatives not to attend the wedding! When the relatives questioned why at all he wanted to even inform when he din't mean to invite them, he said, he din't want the relatives to 'hear' of the marriage through some other outside source! I appreciated the bakery approach much better.
1. The Bangalore party's inviation clearly said 'no' to any gifts for their son. So we din't give anything.
2. There was no question of any gift for the party who just wanted us to be 'informed'.
3. We sent across a gift of cash for the Hyderabad party and in turn they sent across a saree for my mom and some wedding sweets. After we rang to thank them, they shared some wedding photos through the mail! The other two din't share even the wedding photos!!
I check for positive signals whenever we are invited for any occasion by others. I have been to a wedding where the family had just mentioned their sincere desire for us to be present at their son's wedding in Chennai, promisig to send us the invitation which never arrived. But we attended the wedding anyway!
So its not the case of just receiving the invitation card.
It is whether the invitation comes from their heart.
Mahalakshmi.
Mahalakshmi.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Charity Meals For Stray Dogs
There's a temple right next to our flat complex.
A mother and daughter duo have a (roadside) temporary shop to sell flowers by the side of our gate. They buy loose flowers from the wholesale market in Parry’s corner and weave them into garlands here. We have a good view of their activities from our windows.
Two cats, one a golden brown and another, a grey-white, join and give them company when they set shop twice daily.
It is so nice to watch the cats display their affection by waiting and welcoming the two ladies and caressing themselves against their sarees with their tails held upright. The ladies pat them and settle down to work while the cats rest beside them keeping an eye on all those who come to buy stringed flowers.
And then there is a man who comes peddling a bicycle to drop off food packets for the stray dogs. It is cooked rice mixed with some boiled milk. A philanthropist, some streets away, has the rice cooked in huge quantities, engages this elderly man to leave portions at street corners where stray dogs frequent. Her philosophy is, dogs do not hunt but depend on humans for food, so she wants to do her bit for their cause. Cats join in and so do some humans!
The old man carries a big bucket of food, ladles a portion on a piece of paper kept inside a plastic carry bag. He leaves these carry bags on the roadside for a set number of animals at each spot. We know how territorial these animals can be so the man leaves only those many packets! All street dogs know his timing and they wait for him to come at the appointed time in the mornings and evenings.
These 2 cats too wait for him. On occasions, when I am home, I have watched this activity with much interest. But what I saw other than this food distribution is also disturbing. This man would keep two portions for the two cats. He would also hurriedly pack four additional portions in a single carry bag and hand it to the ladies. They carry it home. That’s their lunch and dinner! Wonder whether the animal-lover knows whether a portion of her charity is shared by humans too!!
Mahalakshmi.
A mother and daughter duo have a (roadside) temporary shop to sell flowers by the side of our gate. They buy loose flowers from the wholesale market in Parry’s corner and weave them into garlands here. We have a good view of their activities from our windows.
Two cats, one a golden brown and another, a grey-white, join and give them company when they set shop twice daily.
It is so nice to watch the cats display their affection by waiting and welcoming the two ladies and caressing themselves against their sarees with their tails held upright. The ladies pat them and settle down to work while the cats rest beside them keeping an eye on all those who come to buy stringed flowers.
And then there is a man who comes peddling a bicycle to drop off food packets for the stray dogs. It is cooked rice mixed with some boiled milk. A philanthropist, some streets away, has the rice cooked in huge quantities, engages this elderly man to leave portions at street corners where stray dogs frequent. Her philosophy is, dogs do not hunt but depend on humans for food, so she wants to do her bit for their cause. Cats join in and so do some humans!
The old man carries a big bucket of food, ladles a portion on a piece of paper kept inside a plastic carry bag. He leaves these carry bags on the roadside for a set number of animals at each spot. We know how territorial these animals can be so the man leaves only those many packets! All street dogs know his timing and they wait for him to come at the appointed time in the mornings and evenings.
These 2 cats too wait for him. On occasions, when I am home, I have watched this activity with much interest. But what I saw other than this food distribution is also disturbing. This man would keep two portions for the two cats. He would also hurriedly pack four additional portions in a single carry bag and hand it to the ladies. They carry it home. That’s their lunch and dinner! Wonder whether the animal-lover knows whether a portion of her charity is shared by humans too!!
Mahalakshmi.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Tea Time for Ants
After struggling to sign into my own blog (the sign in would not allow me to sign in!!), I write this piece today.
Trees, shrubs and plants near our ground floor apartment encourage the small creatures like tiny black ants and big black ants to invade our kitchen. They are very choosy about food and drinks! They clamour for fallen crystals of sugar. They swarm around spilled drops of tea. Not coffee, not rice, not milk.
Minutes after the spills we can see them come out from somewhere and take away the sugar. One drop of tea and we can see at least 20 ants forming a circle around the drop and enjoying tea together! Leftover tea makes them climb up the walls of the mugs or tumblers and then down to reach the leftover tea in it.
Tea time with a bit of sugar is party time for the ants in our house.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
Trees, shrubs and plants near our ground floor apartment encourage the small creatures like tiny black ants and big black ants to invade our kitchen. They are very choosy about food and drinks! They clamour for fallen crystals of sugar. They swarm around spilled drops of tea. Not coffee, not rice, not milk.
Minutes after the spills we can see them come out from somewhere and take away the sugar. One drop of tea and we can see at least 20 ants forming a circle around the drop and enjoying tea together! Leftover tea makes them climb up the walls of the mugs or tumblers and then down to reach the leftover tea in it.
Tea time with a bit of sugar is party time for the ants in our house.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
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