Never too young for anything! ;)

These twenty days have been so full of life and I am loving it! With no internship and no exams, I have been painting the town red! Met up with a lot of friends, heard my share of good news (Varun is coming down in September, Vids is going to New York and Gow is going to the Oxford), hogged on great home food and got myself into a project- revamping my house! We have the Asian Paint guys, the carpenter, the computer service guy and the A/C mechanic practically living here and there is a hell lot of noise and dust around. My room looks lovely (the sea-green paint is beautiful) and I am happy. Sindu has been my constant partner in going out in the sun and going out in the dark and sitting at home to idle away time. After one French movie, two Hindi movies, random shopping at Pondy Bazaar, morning walks with amma, countless dosas, unrestricted access to internet (especially youtube), book shopping at Crossword, lot of traffic-rules skipping with Sindu on the bike and intense sun-bathing, I am totally rejuvenated to go to college for my final year. I still have no freaking clue about what I want to do with my life. But I love the way my life is- a lot of work, a lot of chilling and a hell lot of suspense. This is crazy but I am thoroughly living it. :)

All did Harper's Bazaar.

STUPID ME. STUPID STUPID ME!

This moment. I have to record this moment as one of the most awfully embarrassing moments in my life. At the cost of sounding extremely dramatic, I repeat- it was MORTIFYING. I had kept my magazine (one of those glossy fashion ones, you know) on my dinner table before I went out and forgot to get it back!Again: Stupid ME! When I got back, I saw my grandmother (who is willingly orthodox and happily conservative in terms of a typical iyer mami) flipping through the pages of the magazine. It was still fine when she exclaimed with raised eyebrows “3750 chappals-ka?”; “1500 lipstick-ku?” and “enna dress pottundrukka indha ponnu?” But the embarrassment was to its peak when she saw the caption “Dresses to Seduce Your Man”(!) with the elaborate details in pictures and illustrations. I expected her to react with a big scream saying “Krithi! Nee ipdi patta ponnu-nu nan ninakala” or “Enna di aachhu unakku?” and prepared a big speech to justify it in lines of “Illa Ajji, Nan andha pakkam-ellam padikka maaten” or “Ayyo! Andha book ennoda friends-odadhu!”. But much to my tough luck, my grandmom chose the sentimental-attack-path and said “Enna ma, enakku theriyum nee Bangalore-la periya padippu padikara… aana naan idha edhirpakala. Namma tamil kalacharam paarthu nadandhukko. Avalvu dhan solradhukku irukku.” With those words, she walked away to the kitchen with a completely disappointed I-cant-believe-my-krithi-has-turned-into-this-big-city-chick-or-monster look.

And the entire incident had only one effect on me. I ate one dosa less to show my grandmom I really regretted the incident. :( :(

Listening in.

While I was at Hotel Kamat (Colaba Causeway, Mumbai) for an early dinner, I heard a girl say “You want to try dosa? Dosa is what the South of India eats and that’s the only thing they ever eat. It is a pancake sort of thing that is made of oil and rice batter.” Apparently she got them there to show them the different Indian cuisines. She, I am presuming, has got her two American friends home for the holiday and when she said this, I was about to get up and clarify a few things but chose not to. It is stupid to try and wake people who are acting asleep, isn’t it? This is exactly why I got back to my cheese dosa promptly without letting a whole, what I wouldn’t have intended to do, argument happen. Instead, thinking about a hundred varieties I can name of our cuisine, I softly thanked all heavens for not letting so many of Mami’s (whether she is an Iyer or a Chettiar) recipes crawl into these menu-ed kitchens.

P.S: This was not to offend anyone if at all it is capable of any such understanding!

P.P.S. Try and eat like there is no south or north. It feels a lot better.

Defining Dosa(i) as a Concept.

One of the few things I am really particular about is how my dosa should be made, served and eaten. As in I believe there is a point in making dosas the way they are to be made and respect compliance. The point is it is an independent concept and its conceptually incorrect to withdraw from its original form. At least refrain from calling it dosa. Call it something else- say gosa or posa! I often find this happening in restaurants- usually the bhavans and sagars around. And I take offence to such a departure. Primarily, dosas are not meant to be "sweet"- which means adding jaggery or sugar to the batter is a strict "no". Also, dosa is a thin and crispy digestible form of tiffin rather than a thick leather-like pancake making it difficult to chew or digest. Making it that thick would also contribute to leaving some parts of the dosa uncooked. May be learning how to make uthappam helps in cooking thick pancakes but uthappam certainly isnt this bad when made thick!

Another thing that adds to the taste of dosa is oil- but overdoing it or using smelly-reheated oil would only render the dosa sort of stale. Too much of oil is not good in any case, right? Dosas are conventionally served with sambhar and chutney (ranging from coconut to onion to mint to tomato). So it is important that the accompaniments are good too. Good here would ideally mean undiluted, spicy and proportionate with all necessary ingredients. The picture I have put up above could be quite misleading, you know? Coriander seasoning definitely doesn't help. And also, that triangular shape doesnt beautify it that much that people would crave to eat dosas which are of that shape (or rolled up neatly). Sadly, I feel for the cause. The cause of all mamis who make wonderful dosas in a minute. The cause of those dosas which might have a right to be presented the way they want to be. Certainly. Sigh...It (the thought) gives me an appetance for the thin-n-light crispy dosas which I can endlessly hog on at home with other complements such as curd, molaga podi (chilly powder), mango pickle, thogayal (which is my recent addiction), etc... while I feel full up in my throat with just a few bites of those thick-n-oily dosas outside.