Our cooking plan

And in a few hours, I like to put it that way - than 2 days, 2010 will be a page of the past. And while we await in utter mystery as to what lies in store for us in the days to come, Babi and I have decided to bake a New Year cake for all our friends here in the Military Station and send it to them on New Years.

It is meant to serve two purposes:
1. To enjoy our favorite pass-time : Cooking and Baking.
2. To thank all our friends for their love and support in the year that passed.

We are still to fix a menu, but we have our eyes stuck on the Nigella Lawsons recipe - Old Fashioned Chocolate cake.
I am also pasting the link onto the recipe that you will find on her website. Will share the updates on the baking as we go ahead with it. Really hoping it takes off well.

The link : http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/old-fashioned-chocolate-cake-119

GOSH, I MISS MY WIFE

This blog was written when Mrs. B had gone to her home for 02 days. Couldn't post it then, doing it now.

I apologize in advance for the domestic nature of this post. I know that domestic posts are narrow and boring, and well beneath my talents as someone with a doctors degree. I won't blame you, my hypereducated audience, if you think that posts of this nature are beneath your intellectual abilities too, and decide to simply skip this post. But there's a long academic tradition of people thanking their spouses for all their support in the acknowledgements of their books, so please take this in that sense.

You know, I just don't know what I would do without her. I went to take a shower just now, and saw the laundry I'd left hanging over the shower bar two days ago. I'd just completely forgotten about it! My domestic skills are so bad. Anyway, I removed it so that I could shower, and then remembered that when I'd hung it up, I'd put in another load. And it had been sitting in the other room for a while! Now, last time Mrs. B. went out of town, I forgot about the milk on the stove and almost burned down the building. Determined not to fuck up like that again, I had made up my mind this time to make everything go spic and span. I took extra care about the milk and also I went to the next room before my shower and put it in the wash basket. Then I thought, since I'm here, I might as well just put another load onto the basket, so I did. Then off I went to take a shower.

And when it was time to eat, man - thats when I miss her the most. Not that I dont like the food she has cooked and kept in the fridge for me, but now when I eat it, I miss her all the more. The aroma from the food is driving me nuts. Out of hunger and the pangs. Who is so silly to tell their wives that they will manage it all by their own? Only us egghead academic types, all brains-on-sticks. Or maybe it's just because I'm a man, and illogical or absent-minded or something. Anyway, I went and heated the food, boiled some rice and had it. Alone. Brrr.

And then I got out of the eating episode to see that I left the milk outside the previous night and it had fermented and become something like a mould (something I had promised myself against), and now Brownie misses her so much that she wouldn't eat the 'tasty' food I cook for her. Again, my domestic skills are just so sloppy. When will my wife the housekeeper come home and save me from myself?

And then I thought immediately about gender roles. Maybe Mrs. B. is better than I am at this housekeeping stuff just because she's doing it, maybe if I simply paid more attention I'd be good at it too. And then I realized, wait. My friend Raj's home was almost the same when his wife had gone away for a few days. So obviously, this housekeeping stuff is innate, not learned! Plus, the cooking! It's gotta be natural.

Although I love to cook, I haven't cooked a meal since my wife left. Just goes to show, cooking just doesn't come naturally to me. So I think.

And my girlfriend, too. First of all, I have a girlfriend--but Mrs. B. doesn't have a boyfriend. So it must be natural for me, as a man, to stray; therefore, it makes sense that Mrs. B. stays home to keep the house. Keeping a good house is her way of making sure that my natural wandering nature still wants to return home. Also, my girlfriend is a really great cook! And her house is so clean! And she has linen and silk sheets on her bed, and down pillows, and house plants, and art on the walls. Just goes to show, it's not just Mrs. B.: all women obviously have this natural domestic talent.

So I can't wait 'til my wife comes home and saves me from these petty, boring, domestic details so that I can get back to what I naturally do best: Important Doctor Stuff.

You know, like writing EAT HEALTHY blogs.

I so WANT to. I do.

Yeah, there are so many things I want to do still. There are so many things I want to learn. Sometimes I also think of having a change in career, but then I also love what I am doing. Sometimes I feel like a young teen who is still not sure which one to choose from so many things he wants to be. But my case is different - I have become what I always wanted to be and getting here I want to explore options. For many doctors their ambition is to be a specialist or a super specialist and keep adding degrees to the already long graduation degree MBBS. But for me, the ambition was only to be a doctor - and that I have achieved and thus that makes me a content man when it comes to career goals.

Ok, so what are the things I want to do before I am gone? Here are a few to begin with:

1. Learn dancing.

Waltz, Tango, Salsa, Jive, Ballroom dancing, Jig and Hip hop. I would also like to indulge in a lot of Bhangra and Bollywood style dancing.

2. Learn Taekwondo.

What I like about this martial art is, it combines combat techniques, self-defense, sport, exercise, meditation, and philosophy.

3. Learn professional cooking.

That isnt surprising is it? Being a son of an executive chef, it was but natural that it be in my blood. I so love cooking and would love to learn a lot more about the same. What I particularly would love to learn is about Chinese and Continental cuisine, with special emphasis on baking cakes and pastries.

4. Learn photography.

Photography is all about the 'eye for detail' and no matter how much you are trained, if you dont have that eye for it, its all in vain. I think I have that 'eye' I have already over emphasized about. Just a little more direction to it and I promise to be much better.

5. Learn to use Photoshop.

There is so much that can be done using a Adobe Photoshop and always whenever I get close to learning a bit, I get caught up and forget what I learned before I get back. I want a good teacher to set that right for me.

6. Holidaying in Rome, Egypt, Seychelles and Paris.

These are places I always wanted to go with my special person. Now that I have 'that' person in my life - I cant wait to get there.

7. Do bungee jumping.

Though that scares the shit out of me, I firmly believe that its going to be worth the adrenaline rush.

9. Host an international show.

Everytime I stood on stage compeering some event, I have always wondered how it would be to be there entertaining an international audience. Maybe like an award night or a global fashion show. Aaah, don't think that is ever going to work. Hmmm.. :(

10. Interview Oprah Winfrey.

Man, I have always always admired this lady and capacity to interview.

11. To have atleast a 50 goggles.

12. To go on a family vacation to Mauritius.

13. Buy mom an expensive diamond necklace.

Well, thats it for now. Writing this just makes me realise that our list of wants never end. But if I could achieve all this, guess I wont ask for more. For the time being that is.

Peace. :)

Unlike button PLEASE. Pronto.

I want to blame it on Facebook. Today the things we do in our lives is either like or dislike. And saying that I so hope that FB comes up with a dislike/unlike button – whatever sounds better, asap. There is so much of random shit floating around in the internet.

The past few days of my life is the phase where I would copiously should have used the unlike button. I mean, look at it. I have the most beautiful home, a wonderful wife, an awesome bunch of local friends – who are as fun loving as us, a wonderful unit, fantastic climate – rains and the cool weather, I am on leave(to top it ALL) – but I am having to study(Unlike button pressed 10000 times here!). I have that terrible life changing interview coming up and I cant fully allow myself to go off the leash. I have mentally programmed myself to be in front of the books most of the time. But the fact is, 75% of the time I am just allowing my mind to wander in the meadows like a free bird or a cow..and the other fraction of time I realise that my ass is on fire and I don’t have much of time in the hour glass and I study.

I haven’t been with books for nearly 4 years now, and to get back with them with a bang is so undesirable. It feels more like they are ‘getting back’ at me. I am sure you all would have clicked the unlike button with me if you were to go back to books – all over again. But being a doctor, what I am so sure about is that this journey with books is going to be a undying thing. And I am so not liking it.

Just the last week, I had talks with a senior about how it is to pursue MBA etc etc..and join something in mass communications.. and I shared that thought with my wife – who nearly lost it. Haha. But then again, I realised that I love my job. It fits me so perfectly and left to myself, I just want to continue doing what I am doing. I seriously do not want to add that paragraph to my degrees because I am totally satisfied with my job. The social pressure is something I need to come in terms with. Don’t you think that most of our life changing decisions have a lot to do with what the society desires from us. How many of us would just ignore the social fabric and take a really bold decision, which might say offend a lot of people. Trust me when I tell you that I have faced with some of ‘those’ situations in real life and people who already know me personally know how I chickened out of it to suit the social taste. That brings us to the point where I have to admit, from personal experiences again, that chickening out of something you really love doing/love to do, is much more nerve obliterating than going ahead with it. Because if you had put up with the fight, you would have got what you really really loved and that should have made it worth it all. But here you lose both ways. And as usual, I have wandered, like that cow I mentioned earlier, and reached a topic that has nothing to do with my unlike button.

So getting back, I like to say that the rat race and blah blah; the time and tide blah blah; the opportunity and door crap blah blah, all might be true – but having to do something when you are not actually ready to do that, but still having to do that, and that too by giving your best is something I so not-like(unlike!).

So if you were here, would you press the Unlike? ;)

(Ok, now I have crossed the line – back to books or the meadows.)

Julie and Julia

Julie and Julia is a movie released in 2009 and it revolves around Julia Child and Julie Powell - both of whom wrote memoirs - find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

There are lots of things I grasped from this movie and to enumerate the most important few are:

1. The road into leading a emotionally and professionally satisfied life is by doing what you love/enjoy doing the best. Everything else just becomes a mundane routine - something like a tangible. But this gives you the reason to wake up early excited and to burn that midnight oil motivated.

2. To reach where you want - you really need to slog. You need to have your ass on fire. You might be doing the thing that you like the most, but that only makes it easier - but the ass, you still need to forsake.

3. There is no shortcut to success. Motivation and endurance are the only ways to reach there.

4. Its not just important to do something you need to do in excess for a while and then totally forget/sleep over it. You need to keep on at it, and there lies that key to success.

5. It is impossible to have a path of roses. If you dont find a path, you make one. And that you make for yourself would be the easiest for you to tread cos you know where and how and everything about where it takes you.

6. You shouldn't wait for the entire world to be happy for you. Any happiness you get - you make yourselves.

7. And the most important thing of them all - you need that special person in your life to see you through it all. Who would give you that extra push every time you need one. It really makes the ride more easy and one thats worth it all. Your spouse.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this movie to every person who like movies in the genre : Romance, Comedy and Motivation. See it and you wont be disappointed. Trust me.

An Ode to the Navy Ball Dance

Oh, we still are basking in its glory. And for those who came in late – My wife and I won the Navy Ball Best Dancing Couple Prize. Any guesses what the super duper prize is? It’s a citation with a gift hamper for a pressure cooker of 03 litres. Imagine! That’s the great prize. But trust me – we couldn’t be happier. I am going to give you all the details about that night.
Well, it was Wednesday and I get a wall post on Facebook from my teacher once and now a very good friend, Surg Cdr Wilson, asking me : “Navy Ball beckons you, where are you?”. Well, to be really frank, I wasn’t really sure at that point of time if we really were going to go. I had just got back from a temporary duty from Trichy which is in Tamil Nadu, we had a lot of social commitments pending and that which required urgent attention and to which we did give our time, lots of pending shopping for Babi’s kitchen and etc etc. In conclusion – an interview I have on Dec 23rd is glaring at my face, and I was no where. And at the same time, I had my friends who were literally burning their midlight oil studying. So Babi and I were like..should we actually go for it??
Then on Thursday I get this call from the same person mentioned above asking the confirmation of our arrival and that he had got our tickets. Well, I guess when something has to happen, it just happens. So knowing that we really dint want to let him down. But I guess more importantly than that, we really really wanted to go. Its just that we were trying to focus on more important things. But then in a moments time we decided that we were going to go and that very second we got our tickets done and hey, we were all set to go!
Thats when the hell broke loose. I fell ill. Imagine. I am not the kind of person who normally falls ill, but here I am shivering with temperature of about 103F and coughing my lungs out. And it was like there was no way I was going to come out of it. To top it there was a commitment Babi had in the unit, and we also had to meet Babi’s parents. All put together – the result NO looked us straight in the eye. I for one hate taking meds, but this once I was so steadfast to pump myself with the strongest antibiotics possible just to make sure that I could breathe properly. I got my 6B uniform ready and got my shoes shining and waited expectantly for my fever to subside.
Just when I was about to cancel my tickets, the same day, my fever subsided considerably, Babi got her excuse and we could succeed in convincing her parents that we wont be able to make it. And thus we packed our bags and set out. Our train was nearly an hour late and the traffic in Kochi, the place where the balls was, is unbelievable. But the couple – Sir and his wife, kept waiting for us and we had the most most warm welcome from them and an unexpected member of their family. Romeo – their Lhasa Apso. He is such an adorable dog that we got more late cuddling and playing with him.
Anyways, finally we got to the NAVY BALL 2010. I must tell you – the arrangements that the Navy had was commendable indeed. And in no time, we had 09 very pretty girls setting the ramp on fire with aesthetically measured steps as they cat walked on the arena. That done and the winners announced, it was time for the real thing. The Ball!
We started of just enjoying the music and swaying to the pop music they started of with..which progressed to retro to bollywood to Punjabi. Man, was the DJ good or what. And there they announced that there was a prize for the best dancing couple. Though we were really reluctant to go there at first, Sarath, Shruthi and Sarath’s sisters convinced us into going there. And being there – we were almost sure that we lost it. Because there were o2 couples right there doing the most commendable salsa I have ever seen. They had nailed it. I told Babi that we would just go to the background and leave the war front. But Babi told me that we need not compete, but just would enjoy the music and dance. And then we danced and danced and danced..and after about half an hour of dancing to various genre of music – they announced the names. And there we were doing a dance on stage for the audience. And we walked down the stage with style, prize in hand.
This by far was the most exciting time I had at any major party, the first big award I got for dancing, after the one I had won with my best bud in a ball dancing workshop back in college in 2003. I think there is nothing more liberating than dancing unleashed. And to have been honoured for that – wooooaaahhhh.
Ok, now that we are back, here is the update and off I go back into that dismal world of books. Sometimes I think I should have done better as a dancer/actor or a VJ. But..