Talking of Garden City..

Is it just me, or is Chennai really going green? There is a garden/park in every spare bit of land in the city. There is even a garden tucked into the Gemini flyover!! And Hadder's road has it's own petite garden - right next to the Oxford bookstore. And the garden at the end of Cenetoph's road - that's pretty too - overlooking the river and all. And as Mutt put it - Tiru.V.Ka park looks like a fairy land if you drive past it in the evening!! Do try to drive past it - even if you live on the other end of the city - it's totally worth it!

And apparently there is this huge 17 acre park coming up somewhere near the beach. And they're going to convert Woodlands drive in into a botanical garden as well!!

Not to mention the roads - GST as well as the first part of OMR are now a sight to behold! (I'm not gonna mention ECR, because the pretty parts start only after you leave Chennai). Oh and the tambaram bypass too - though, again, I dunno if you can call it Chennai!

I know we have miles to go, but not a bad start, eh? I'm so proud of our corporation. I mean, yeah, they do stupid things like put a flyover in Cenetoph's road (seriously, what's with that?!) and Sardar Patel road(which noone uses!), but then they also build something like the Kathipara junction (which I'm totally in love with, btw).

So now, it's singara chennai yet again! :-)

A city I once loved..

Once upon a time, when it was called Bangalore, this city had wide roads lined up with beautiful, giant, green trees. The trees used to be so thick that they used to block the sunlight to a large extent. The roads were wide - or maybe they appeared wide to a 10 yr old me, and the traffic used to be so little that they used to allow us to run across the road. The weather so cool, that fan used to considered a luxury - used by the rich during two weeks in the summer.

Once upon a time, you could go from one end of the city to the other end in less than an hour, and MG Road meant lots and lots of bookstores.

Once upon a time, we used to catch a double decker bus and sit on top and ride all the way to Majestic every time we wanted to 'go shopping'. There wasn't a mall every ten yards then, see?

Once upon a time, my mental images of Bangalore used to be covered with green trees and mist - lots of mist. Actual mist - not smog.

Once upon a time, Bangalore used to be called "the garden city".

And now...?

It took us two and a half hours to drive from Mysore to the edge of Bangalore (Mysore road) and another two to drive from there to Koramangla.

That's all I'm saying.

The Hierarchy

I have long been reproached/teased/mocked/looked-at-curiously/made-fun-of/etc.. fr claiming to have 18 best friends. (Yup, the count is out, and the number is 18.)

I shall give you a few examples:-

a)My testimonials in orkut - Almost all of them mention this fact.
b)I've always wanted a small wedding (I know, I know - too much Hollywood), but my mom wants a biggg one. So my sister, tells my mom "Don't worry, there is no way it will be small. She will have to invite all her best-friends, remember?". Yeah. Humph. We'll see. x-(
c)My RG proclaims "She will wake up before 11 in the morning during weekends only if she has a date with one of her 716 best friends" :-P
d)Every time I mention someone - anyone, Mutt demands if that person is a best friend.

And of course there are many more..

So, for once and I've decided to quell all doubts and explain to all and sundry the hierarchy. I've even drawn out a picture. Look:



So, like I've shown, you can have only one bestest friend. Mine, is Samie. Why you ask? Well, she is a sweetheart and we did have the pact (I know I broke it, but still..). Also she's the only one who, like me, is enthu for everything under the sun and has a gadzillion best friends. More than me, believe it or not.. Also, she's the only one who doesn't have another bestest friend.

All my other best friends do.. Like Chicken has De (yeah, gurl, you do. She is you bestest and you can't escape that)(and vice-versa), Kosu has R, Mr.A has Joe, MM has Pumpkin(I tell you, it's an exclusive spot), Mutt and Kitty have each other, Assie has Vasu, Sug had A and Mads has B, The girl, RG and Pipe have gotta work it out amongst themselves, and Tea has Ash, Blue angel has that girl whose name I forgot (sorry! :-( ), the Sista has well.. i dunno a million people other than me.

See? This is what I mean. If you ask any(or at least most) of these people, they will tell you that I am indeed a best-friend of theirs. Even those idiots who tease me mercilessly. Yet, they all have a significantly closer best friend. Who becomes the bestest. And the rest remain in "best".

So, anyway, for the newcomers, let me explain the terms.

1.Bestest friend: The person whose house is your second home. Whose parents know your favorite dish and who you tell (or can tell) everything to! Who will fly down from the other end of the world if you need them to(Hear that, Samie?). Who completely understands why you're doing what you're doing.

2.Best friend: Much like the bestest friend, but not quite. Their house need not be a second home necessarily, but more often than not, that is the case. They will also be willing to do the flying down in case of emergency thing, but you don't need 20 people with you during an emergency, so you ask most of them to stay put. They are people who you can call in the middle of the night if you're feeling miserable, wake them up and crib till dawn (Indeed, that has been done to all many times)- even if they have an exam/presentation the next day(this has also been done. They know what you are up to currently.

3.Good friends: These people are usually people you were very close to for a short (short can be up to 2 years!) while - maybe over a project, or a course together. Maybe you stayed together in the same hostel, or were roommates at some point or the other. For that short period, you knew each other very well, but over time, you've kinda lost touch. Yet, those events bound you together so hard, than even years apart, you can still call them and ask them a favour without any qualms. These are people who actually do know you and your family. Your mom will recognize the on the road even when you're not around. They will drop by when they are in the neighbourhood without fail and more often than they know your food preferences and your many ailments.

4. Friends: This is every single person you can ever count on. Who you can relate to in someway or the other and who you can call without having an excuse to do so. Most of your old classmates who you played with on the swing, your current one whose notes you borrowed come under this category. These are people who you're happy to meet on the road, and if you do, you'll ask them to have a cup of coffee with you. These are people whose numbers are there on your phone and email IDs are there on your Gmail contact book.

5. Acquaintances: Like I said, this is practically everyone who you have ever met who remembers you and who you remember. If you have a reason to call them, and do so, they should be able to recognize you the minute you introduce yourself. This is a HUGE list because it includes almost all your classmates from every school/college you attended and friends of friends you hung out with.

Having said all that, let me conclude that there is no hard and fast rule which divides the classes and this is just the definition I give.

Disclaimer: This post was put up in a state of extreme joblessness and in order to clarify a few doubts friends of the author had.

The 'M' word

Since I am nearly [insert age + 1], the extended family has started mentioning the M word to ze parents. My parents, who were initially taken aback (my dad especially - he was quite at loss as to what to do), have learnt how to deal with the.. er.. proposals, thankfully and bug me no more with funny anecdotes which they think are cute but I think are just plain irritating..

Like the one where my uncle, who was woken up from his sleep, forgot my existance and claimed there was no such girl.. Okay, that one was actually funny!

And the other one, where a certain grandaunt said something to the effect of "I'll find you a really good guy who will let you study further.. don't worry". Hang on there.. let me??? LET me? Whoa! Boy, do these people not know me at all!!

Oh, and not to forget the "if you study so much, how are we gonna find a guy who's stuided as much"!! Sheesh!

You know, that's what really strikes me. How little these people (not my parents and their siblings - they thankfully suffer under no such illusion) know me, yet suffer under the impression that they do. They think I'm a CSIG (I am, btw.. at least according to the Mutt) who will listen to her parents, get married at [insert age], to a guy in the same caste who they pick out for me - probably some 2nd or 3rd cousin, and I will actually listen to what the guy will tell me to do, suffer under the whole "kal aanalum purushan" thing, and have two kids as the age of 25, etc...

And the worst part is, I do not know what I can say to make them understand that the world has evovled very much since they were kids and that is not how people do stuff anymore. I mean, I can be a lesbian and they wouldn't even understand what that means. They'll probably think it's 'a phase'.

It's funny actually. And quite sad too. Funny because, lets face it, people stuck in the past are funny. Sad - because people stuck in the past means there will be no progress..

Keerai

My words of great wisdom for the day: Parents are like spinach - boring, uncool and distaseful - but very good for your health!

* waves to the cheering crowd *
Thank you. Thank you ver' much.

The 1st supper.

I cooked dinner last night. The whole of it. As in chapatti as well as curry. I know what you're thinking, but no, everyone at home is quite alright, thank you very much!

Last night was lesson no.1 in my mom's "teach daughter to be independent as far as food is concerned thingy".

Anyway, I made this very simple tomato curry thing whose recipe I'm gonna put up here for people who have only 15 mins to prepare themselves a nice meal.

So you cut up some tomatoes in small pieces and some onions - say about one onion and two tomatoes. Two green chillies are also cut up. (if you don't get green chillies, you might wanna use chilly powder. If you like spicy use more. Don't use less than two, it becomes too bland). Cut up some ginger also (again as much as you want for taste. I'd say some 10 small pieces (small being .5 cm sided cubes approx).

Next, you switch on the frying bowl and put in about 3-4 tea spoons on oil, and wait for 30 seconds. Then, you put in half a tea spoon of mustard and half a tea spoon of black gram dal(ulutham paruppu) and fry for 15-30 seconds. Then add the cut up onion, ginger and chilly and fry till the onion starts developing a tinge of brown. Just a tinge, mind you. And then add some salt. 3/4th - 1 teaspoon. Depends on you, actually.. Then add the tomato and fry for about 5-10 mins and voila, you have your tomato curry.

15 mins max. And you can garnish with coriander if you want, but if you're cooking for yourself, I'd say "don't bother". Unless of course you like coriander.

Oh, and I made chapattis as well. Not that that's new - been doing that since I was 'eah high.. but the mother seemed to have forgotten that. She bought me my own rolling in and rolling board when I was about 5 which she has no recollection of! Which was good in a way. She was all in raptures when she found out I could roll chapattis. Ah, whatever. These mothers, I tell you...!!

Oh, and tip: Once you roll said chapatti, fry it immediately, else they become dry and hard. At least cover it up.

Okay, enough cooking lessons for the day. And do not fear, this is not going to be a cooking blog, but since the mother is set on her "my-daughter-independent-blah", a few recipes might pop up every now and then. So be warned.

On being followed!

Mathika finally taught me how to use a reader today (yes, I needed to be 'taught'), and guess what I found? There are 24 people who subscribe to it! How 'bout that?? 24!! And to think that less than 2 years ago, I actually was here and now I have 24 subscriptions and 5 followers!!

Someone's really come on in life, eh?

On the down-side though, it means I get 24 less hits everytime I write a post because those people just read it using a reader and many of them(my sister for starters) are too lazy to comment! x-(

Ah, well!! Still.. 29!! Yay!

My new target is 50. So tell one, tell all, people!

Red Hot

My mom recently commented on how the guy I marry will have a hard time putting up with my temper! Let us at this point take a moment to mourn for him..

* silence *

But on a serious note, I do find myself getting irritated for the minutest things. It can be anything - like my dad refusing to write down the address and insisting jot it down, Debo rapping hard on my door unnecessarily, my friends fussing about going somewhere, people not calling me back, the politics in the department, someone telling me "you should know hindi", meaningless debates (like the ones on the blog) where the other person is thick headed and refuses to see reason and goes off in a tangent, my friends proposing on having a drink during a journey (I wasn't even going with them and I still got irritated!), some guy making eyes at me on the bus/train, people not returing my books, people not realising how much trouble I get into for breaking a curfew and treating it frivoulously, people pretending to be know-it-alls, etc..

I know that most(if not all) these reasons are valid enough, and most people get mad, but I do not think any of them experience a flare of anger rush through them and their heart starts beating fast demanding justice!

I usually either give the look that might kill or ignore them completely. but more often then not, I yell.

Maybe BP is my thing. I always thought it would be diabetes.

Whatever.

Beware of me. I bark.