The Magic of Spices

Today I have decided to confess!! For Ramnath to fall in love with me.. I had to do absolutely nothing.. But to sustain his love , I had to fall in love with cooking :-)

Well am I sounding like a die hard feminist..??No people, I am not anywhere near that school of thought... but u need to call a spade a spade dont you.. and hence I think its rightly said that the best way to a man's heart is thru the tummy :-)

As a student of chemistry, I have always been fascinated by the chemisty in the kitchen. The magic of spices - as I call it never ceases to amaze me. You can change cuisines....just by changing the spices..right? And I have a husband who just believes in one spice - thats called variety ....and soo..do u think I have a choice...

Anyways, In this space, I am going to be recording some of my lab experiments (mind you they are experiments and results will always vary!!) and Ramnath has promised to take some lovely pictures of the dishes :-)..Well you need some motivation don’t you !!

Ok now for some truth!! The real reason I am putting them here is for Ramnath to let me go on a long vacation :-) without complaining...

And this section is a dedication to the guy I love living for, to the guy I love dying for .. but ultimately end up cooking for :-) .... And we will start with his favourite Dal Makhani.

Now did I manage to sound like a wonderful good wife of the olden days? Nooo...I am just making up for the last evening fight :-) and now I have to get Ramnath to read this :-)

Ok people till I get the recipe done.. SO LOOONG!!

The Corporate Language..

Well, at work, you got to be professional. Very diplomatic... Corporate culture is all about handling things professionally - meaning doing things objectively..meaning doing things out of your head ,meaning do not use ur emotions.. Meaning using ur IQ more than ur EQ…and so on.....That’s what they told me at my Entry level training and I thought vow, its going to be GITA IN ACTION whenever I am at work..

Now its like 6 years since I started work and here is what I have discovered.Ok ok let me be honest at least now :-). This is an email I got long back (I dugged it up becoz I had to write something in this blog :-).).I certify it 100% , endorse it 200% and I am in love with it for eternity :-) ….Here we go with the "Corporate Language" summed for everybodys eyes.

"There was a slight miscommunication"
means
"We had actually lied"

"Lets call a meeting and discuss"
means

"I have no time now, will talk later"

"We are on the right track but there needs to be a slight extension of the deadline"
means
"The project is screwed up, we cannot deliver on time."

"We had slight differences of opinion"
means
"We had actually fought"

"After discussion we will decide - I am very open to views"
means
"I have already decided, I will tell you what to do"

"We need to find out the real reason"
means
"Well I will tell you where your fault is"

"We are a team"
means
"I am not the only one to be blamed"

"That's actually a good question"
means
"I do not know anything about it"

"Tomorrow first thing in the morning"
means
"Its not getting done... At least not tomorrow !".

"You have done a great job"
means
"More work to be given to you"

Take care and I hope to get more and more time at work and Thanks Madhu, your wishes seem to be already working :-)

The D-Day!

Well finally, its happened , The baby has arrived!!

I have been planing to write a blog for over 5 years now and today I am glad its out!! I am going to be penning down anything I find interesting, but I promise to keep it short. As I am always driven by time or by the want of it !! And I have always scored well in objectives and not in subjectives :-)! Here u can hope to find some useful quick recipes, some cool code snippets, some travel lessons for mothers and lots of saintly enlightenings :-) !!

I got all the time in the world today and you guessed it right! I am at work right now! At home I am absolutely busy, as I have a three year old son to run behind and a full grown child to run with (Well my husband ofcourse!).

I am sure all the mothers out there understand how it feels and I hope my manager is not reading this :-). Before I get boring, here we go with my first one for the start!!

Cast Away

You got to hang in there and just keep breathing
'Coz the sun will defintely rise tomorrow
And who knows what tomorrow's tide brings for you!

Well these words of Tom Hanks, just got me haunted, ever since I saw Cast Away. The attitude of Survival -just summed up!

For those who have not watched this movie, Its about this guy who gets marooned on an island and who goes through the human survival and evolution process all over again .From Stone age to Iron age to modern age! This guy lives- or rather survives for four years alone in the island. Then one day he manages to make a sail and gets back home, only to find his wife having another family. He is Cast away not in the island - but here in the civilzied world. Then he goes on to reflect upon his life in island and life back home. And out comes the words of wisdom, the words of realisation. An ancient eastern philosophy, narrated beautifully by the West.

And they just caught on to me. All of us are in our own islands.....just like Tom Hanks! Cast Away!!. Is it not true? Every day, is a fight , Every day is a struggle for survival, whether at home or at work .

Every day, we try to control, manipulate and struggle to get hold !! We strive to control emotions, our relationships, the people within reach and of course all the situations around. The more we think we are in control, the more things seem to be out of control. And then these words ring a bell, rather they wake us up!!

To survive, we just need to hang on.. And accept the day and, just live it through. Because we have control over absolutely nothing. The sun will rise tomorrow and the waves will still go on. With us or without us. And all we need to do is hang on!. To be like this is a goal worth having and I am charmed right now, by this goal !!. To hang out there and just keep breathing and enjoying this miracle called life!! Take care and I hope to be back soon!!