The Workings of an Overactive Mind

    Every sunday, my mom, dad & myself would go out for a long drive for atleast an hour or two, where we talked about anything & everything. This was one of the rituals I inherited from my parents and on March 15th Sunday, PV, Varun & I went out for our usual car drive to Mahabalipuram via ECR. We never thought that it would be a while before we could go back again. So on the next saturday when they announced the Janta Curfew, Varun kept asking why cant we go out in the car & we pacified him saying we'll go next week. And then came the lockdowns & we explained to him about the Corona Virus outbreak & the reason we cant step outside our homes.    Today after a month & a half, I stepped out with PV to stock our monthly supplies as there was no online delivery in our area through BigBasket & Amazon. And the local supermarkets are also not delivering. Varun was excited thinking that he would also accompany us. Had to again brea...

        Right from my childhood one of my favorite recipe was Macaroni. Mom used to make with all the vegetables & it used to be crunchy & spicy. Whenever i go home for Vacation from college this was on the menu. PV too shared my love for this macaroni of mom's. Amma used to pack this as lunch for PV & me during the car travel from Nagercoil to Chennai. But one hour into our journey we would practically polish off the whole box. I have tried so many times to replicate mom's recipe & have never been successful. Most days the longing for mom's macaroni taste has broken me completely.    So nowadays i dont try to replicate hers, instead have come up with numerous other variations. I make them with Paneer, Chicken, Vegetables, Eggs, etc. I usually eyeball the ingredients. The pasta that i tried recently for dinner was a super duper hit & i just wanted to share it here. Recipe: Pasta - 250 gms Onion - 1 medium chopped Tom...

    My love for Mint has no bounds. I like the flavor & freshness it brings to a dish. One of my favorite chocolates in York - Peppermint patties. Unfortunately we dont get this in India & whenever someone in my office brings a bag of chocolates from their abroad trip my hands go to this. And one more added advantage is not many like this chocolate & so more chocolates to me. Yaay.      If you are following me on Instagram or Facebook you would have known what happened at my house last week. I ended up with 3 bunches of Mint, 2 bunches of Coriander & one bunch of curry leaves. And i couldn't bring myself to waste them as they are all my favorite. So i ended up making lots of things with them.      So the first thing i did was separate the mint leaves from the stalks. It took me almost 2 hours to do this. I turned on the TV & just sat doing. On the second day, i dried one bunch of mint leaves in the shade f...

        When I was pregnant with Varun, PV & I wanted a girl very badly. We both chose only girl names & the one boy name we could come up between the two of us was the name of our AC 'Blue Star'. I went through 20 hrs of labor pain & the nurse in the delivery room asked us to say to the baby to come soon. So both PV & I promptly used the girl name & the nurse gave us a weird stare. Finally they had to do a C-sec as we both were going into distress.     After the baby was born, the Dr woke me & showed that its a boy. I was very disappointed at that moment & turned my face (Not my proud moment). But when they got me back to the room after 3 hrs I was stunned by seeing him since he was the exact replica of me in my childhood. From that moment I fell head over heels in love with Varun.     Till recently i was sure that both boys & girls love their mom/dad the same. Whenever the discussion that...

    I like sweets but was never crazy about them. But it all changed when i was pregnant with Varun. Right from day one all i wanted was sweets. In the first trimester its usually advised not to consume sweets but i went crazy with my cravings & it was around Diwali time. So there was a box of sweets that I devoured without PV's knowledge. I used to wake up in the middle of the night to eat them. Finally he discovered it & threw the whole box 😦. There were only few things that didnt trigger nausea & they were Dosa+egg, Sweets, kadala mittai & Coconut water. So i basically lived the nine months on these.     Now coming to present day, Varun cannot resist sweets & along with him even i cant stop eating them now. So there is always kadala mittai at home. An astrologer who has not met him  at all once said that Varun was born to eat sweets. Likewise if there isn't any sweets lying around he'll eat Sugar, Jaggery or Palm candy. He ...

     On friday(Jan 17) I woke up around 6.30 and geared up with hoodie and walked outside. Two doggies Ladoo & Boondhi greeted me. The caretaker called out and i was able to see just two bisons from a herd of atleast 50 to 60 on a nearby grassland. We had breakfast and got to pluck fresh strawberry & Potatoes from their backyard. It was a unique & beautiful experience.     By 11, they took us on a Jeep drive to a nearby Waterfalls called Chilanthiyar. This place is accessible only by Four wheel rides that too only jeeps and by walk. There was no roads only small boulders and by the time we reached down to the falls my legs were literally shaking with fear. The water was super cold and Varun enjoyed walking in them. The walk down was steep and enjoyable.The walk up literally left me out of breath and we super struggled to reach our jeep.      The Jeep ride to the top of the hill was one of the most unforgettab...

     Right from my childhood my parents used to take me on vacation at least once a year. By 10 yrs i had visited all the hill stations in Tamilnadu. And after that in my school & College i used to go on all the excursions. So when i got married poor PV who had not visited most of the places had to find unique places or experiences for me when we plan a vacation. Recently I had gone for vacation to a place called Vattavada near Munnar with my family and it was one of the most unique experience for all of us.  We booked a homestay in The Only Place Log cabin. This place was suggested to us by PV's friend. As soon as I checked their website i was super excited to go there. When we were planning in December, they were fully booked so we pushed our vacation to January during the Pongal holidays.      On Pongal morning we started from Chennai around 12 & reached Palani in the evening. Since we had to travel through Anamalai Reserve a...

When I started blogging in 2019, I put forward many pointers or goals which i planned to achieve. Recap: Eat more healthy home cooked food - I was vegetarian a month & still ate outside. Does that count? Read atleast 52 books in a year(1 book a week) - Read 44 books in total & watched more than 100 movies & web series combined. Squeeze some physical activity into my life - Nope became a bigger lazy goose Spend some quality time with my family - Had 2 mini vacations with family and spent almost all the weekends home with Varun. So this was 50/50 But in general, 2019 was a very average year for me. Faced way too many disappointments this year. Hope the tide changes. Only one saying runs in my mind. "Every Dog has its day". I do not know what 2020 has in store for me, but i know that i will face it with a smile in face & a cuss word in mind. 😀 Happy New Year!!! Stay Happy & Stay positive.

  I'm on my 35th book now and I realized that I have read quite a few books with strong women characters that inspire us to think big and achieve them too. This blog is about a few of those books.  Dear Mrs.Naidu by Madhangi Subramanian "Never Apologize for wanting something. Just find another way""He has a second chance & he doesn't want to take it. He didn't lose hope. He gave it up." The above two phrases in the book stood out so much because of the rawness & truth in them. This book is about a girl who tries to improve the condition of her school through the means available to her. A child should not be fighting for her/his education. The government & society as whole should work towards making education available for all. I would rate this book 4/5 for narration & captivating story telling. The mother I never knew by Sudha Murthy Sometimes a book surprises us and leaves you in tears while reading. This is one such read. ...

        Teachers are one of the many the heroes that shape our minds. I was lucky I had so many awesome teachers who helped and guided me all through my academics. But this post is about my childhood tuition teacher Sakunthala Miss!!! She started taking tuition for my brother as my mom didn't have patience to make us sit and I used to join them right from LKG. I studied with her till 5th and then for my 10th board I again went to her. I used to learn the question along with the answer and recite to her. I know i was a big nerd and a show-off too 😀.     When my brother was studying for his 10th board exams, she used to rock him in my niece's cradle in order to coax him to study. She used to come at 6 in the morning, wake him up & was always attacked by his pet dog Pepsi for disturbing him. I learnt to drive so well in her 'Sunny boy' scooter. We both used to roam around our native singing loudly!!!     I always spent ...

    Two years back I started watching stand-up comedy & I really liked them so much. In the middle of a tensed work day they gave me so much comfort. I used to watch shows of SA Aravind, Kenny Sebastian, Karthik Kumar, Alexander Babu, Vir Das, EIC Outage & many more. My first ever live show was SA's 'Madrasi Da' & the opening intro act was done by Alex. PV & I decided that if we get a chance we should go for his show.     Over the course of time we followed Alex's show online & we really enjoyed his show with Baggy 'Yogi & the Bear'. Whenever 'Alex in Wonderland' was airing in Chennai, either we were out of station or there wasn't anyone to take care of Varun for us. So when the show aired in Amazon Prime on August 23rd I was super excited but I really regret not watching the live performance.     I watched the show on prime with my dad & we really enjoyed it so much. We laughed, clapped & sang along. Th...

                 Its Sunday night & I'm sulking around the house thinking of the week ahead, planning the menu in my head and basically picking up fights with my boys(PV & Varun). All i wanted to do was cry that my weekend got over. So as a pick me up I was watching Youtube in the TV & was browsing randomly.    I came across Nee's Kitchen Mango Rice & started watching due to the riot of colors. By the time she was sauteing the mango mixture PV was drooling at the mixture and of course the mortor & pestle. Then he started dropping hints about making it at home. Anu, Namma ithe vettule panrathuku antha Ammi kal illala(For us to make this at home, we dont have the mortar-pestle right). Note the word Namma(us) here. We'll deal with that in a separate blog.     Luckily for him I had some mango lying around & I made the recipe on Monday for lunch. Something to look for...

    The first book of this author that I read was 'The Palace of Illusions' which was Mahabarat in the views of Draupadi. It shed a new light to all the characters in the original epic. And also made me feel the pain of Draupadi.     This book is Ramayan from the views of Sita. I had never read Ramayan though I know bits & pieces of the epic. This book really captures a true & unbalanced narration. We all praise Lord Ram for his dharma & his pious belief in duty. But as a husband & life partner to Sita and as a father to Lav & Kush he was unjust to punish them without cause. Each time Sita was tested I cried for her & at the end of the book I was bawling my heart out. But through all the difficult times though there was anger Sita's love for Ram never wavered. Though she realizes that "Love is found in its purest form on this imperfect earth between mothers and young children, because there's nothing they want except to ma...

Book 5: Rusty by Ruskin Bond        A few years ago I got to read a book of this author & from then Im a huge fan of his works. His books are for children mostly but they have so much message & frankly anybody can read them. This book is about the childhood of the author himself. His life with his grandfather was so adventurous & laugh out loud funny. But nearing the end the author will make you cry for the little boy. The book was so engaging, entertaining, thought provoking & I would give a 5/5. Book 6: Saraswati's Intelligence        I don't know if I like this book or not. It is a good read but unfortunately it resembles Game of Thrones & the White Walkers too much. The part about the various Hindu God were good but a bit dry at some places. When I started reading the book I was in a dark place with respect to my faith in God. But this book gave me a good boost of positive energy. Overall I would give...

      The summer is so hot & cruel in Chennai. Scorching Sun, unbearable heat & never ending water scarcity led to the one ultimate destination the TV in our room with me watching endless movies & series on weekend & after office. PV & I use the other rooms only when necessary. We watch atleast 5 movies on the weekend alone thanks to Amazon Prime, Hotstar & Netflix. Instead of taking the book challenge, I could have taken movie challenge. (BTW I have completed 20 books so far)      One such evening out of boredom I started watching 'Naachiyaar' in Prime. Only during the title card did I know that the movie was directed by Bala. Now i prepared my mind to expect a dark story. Boy I was wrong!!! The movie stars Jyothika as Naachiyar a strict, honest & short-tempered police officer who tries to find a minor rape victim 'Arasi' who is now full 9 months pregnant. The person suspected is again a minor boy 'Kaathu' portray...

            Mango is not just a fruit its an emotion. My love for mangoes either raw or the juicy ripe fruit has no bounds. For Varun's 1st birthday I baked a Mango Cake. Every year when we travel from Chennai to Ngl I used to drool at all the mango farms & literally beg PV to get them directly from the farm. But so far I have not been lucky. He's not a easy person to convince & doesn't do anything in an impulse.       My friend in college taught me the trick of mixing Jaggery + sambar powder. This combo is so addictive as it has sweet, sour, taut, spicy everything wrapped in one mouthful. Before marriage I spent a year in native & in Nagercoil there are 2 mango seasons. One in Summer & the other in December. We had a few trees in our farm & one among them was the Neelam variety(Kili mooku/Thothapuri). Whenever my mom sees mango she makes pickles out of them. I fought with her & refuse...

    We had a dog called Pepsi. She came to our home when I was 8 years old. She was a gentle soul who loved car drives, cuddles in bed with us & very very fond & protective of my brother. She had a flaw. She hated little kids & bald men. Her son was Ruby & he used to love beaches so much. When I was in 12th std on the day of my final exams Pepsi passed away.     I was not able to be without dogs & got Sweety. This poor soul suffered from seizures & her teeth stood out in all directions. She gave birth to only one pup & that was Chikku. Pepsi's grandson. He inherited the best of family traits.     He is very fond of me as I was always cuddling him as the pup. He was very fond of kids. Especially my niece Rini. He used to follow her around & when she was upto some mischief he used to bark & alert us. He used to drink from Rini's bottle after she slept & cuddle next to her.     Whe...

        I speak Tamil very fluently but when it comes to reading Tamil, especially literature I stumble & fair miserably. Till i was in Xth standard the day before my Tamil II exams, I used to go to my Aunt who was a Tamil professor to learn from her. When my results came & I scored 90 marks in Tamil she was shell shocked. She blamed the correction methodology for me getting high marks. In her evaluation i would have only scored 60. Believe me this is not a fashion statement or something I'm proud about. There is a world of tamil literature I'm missing because of this serious flaw. I search for English translations of tamil works. The ones I really enjoyed so much are Ponniyin Selvan series & books by Perumal Murugan.     When you read his works, you'll be subjected to see our beautiful state in a different eye. His books have always left me feeling strong emotions & makes me question the tolerability of everyone around m...

         Baking is my happy place. Precise measurements & perfect timings make a beautiful cake/brownie!!! When i got married in 2010 PV used to have rotating shifts. My favorite passtime was watching cookery show in TLC, Fox Life, MasterChef Australia etc... Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater, Jamie are few of my favorite chefs. I used to bake/cook around 1 AM or early mornings since that is the most peaceful time with little to no sounds around.     I am not a huge fan of Brownies. But once I tried this recipe it was a match made in heaven. It's so simple and addictive to eat. You just cant stop with one. Recipe: Flour - 1/2 cup Cocoa powder - 1.5 Tbsp Baking powder - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp Chopped Chocolate - 1 cup Butter - 4 Tbsp Coffee powder - 2 tsp Brown Sugar - 3/4 cup Eggs -2 Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp Method: 1. Preheat oven to 180C 2. In a double boiler add Chocolate, Butter & Coffee Powder to melt. 3. Add ...

    I have been missing from blogging for a few weeks now. Before you assume that i was busy, I was super duper lazy. Binge watching Netflix, Prime series and reading numerous books(12/52) along with office work. I have also started a coloring book to work on my concentration skill.     One of the reasons for this break was my MIL. Before u let ur imagination wild, she made every single thing at home. When I come out ready for office, my hot breakfast & packed lunch is waiting for me. When i return back there is a warm dinner & she takes care of Varun too. A true blessing.     I have been always on my feet completing all tasks, ticking all the imaginary boxes every single day & this break gifted by her was unexpected & I was finally able to put my feet up & relax a bit. Now that she's gone back, this week was super yucky & I'm struggling to return to routine!!!!     Made a Mocha Brownie as a pick me...