Sardar without feta

Before you ask me "what is feta?", let me explain it to you - turban is called feta in Marathi. And this particular phrase is invented by yours truly to honor certain qualities of a person, collectively. It sort of defines the essence of a person - irrespective of any physical appearances.

Ok, enough of beating around bush. I usually use this term to describe myself.

There are times when you feel absolutely driven by something - some thought or action, and then you stop thinking about any other thing. There are no second thoughts about implications nor intention to find any workarounds. You just want to do it.. that very moment. Nothing else matters or seems as important as that thing. So you do it, only to realize that you have already done it n number of times before and regretted it... every single time.

To be frank, it's pretty weird that you could repeat the same thing again. When I think back, I just chuckle and take it in my stride (Ok, I am solely responsible for it, so it's nobody's stride's business).

So thats what you call the person who does certain things without thinking much. Wouldn't you want to know what makes me qualified for this title? 

Shoes!

I have tons of shoes (literally) and still I go weak in knees when I see a good pair of shoes. In malls I want to avoid entering any shoe shops, but can't help it. I decide firmly that this visit is merely to say hi to all those nice shoes and to see what's happening in the shoe-world in general.

And that's the last sane thought invented by my brain.

As soon as I step inside the shop, I get carried away and decide to try couple of pairs. Brain is trying to rebel meekly but I convince it by trying-is-not-buying logic.

The shop attendants might find it bizarre. Our conversation goes like this:
"No, I don't need any help. I haven't liked anything much so far."
"Can I see that one?"
"It won't fit my feet, we won't find anything right size."
"Uh oh, it is fitting nicely, but I am sure we won't have black in this style." "Ahem, which color looks good? red or black? Can you help me decide?"
"I think I need something in blue as well"

Sigh!

So for a person who is not supposed to buy any shoes, I end up walking out with three pairs of shoes.

Twitter has killed my blog

Today when I saw this blog, the realization was bit shocking that I have not been blogging for years together. Life definitely has become 2000% more busier in past few years, but there is still some time to catch up on writing.

With changes at work and two babies screaming for attention all the time, it is no surprise that I am not able to spend more than 5 mins in a stretch to do any activity. And whenever I get few mins they are gobbled by facebook and twitter (and add g+ to the list now). It is weird the way we end up spending so much time on these sites. Whenever I see links posted to blogs on twitter I get an urge to write something, but it would typically last for few second - until I speed past to the next tweet. I never even got to login into blogging page.

Now that I am here, I am finding it extremely hard to write something more than 140 characters. Ahem!

Twitter has killed my blog.

Cute farfalle pasta

I fancy things more often then I should. This was my second attempt to try pasta. The first attempt was about two years back.

I remember I had bought fusilli pasta last time (because I just loved that shape). And with a lot of enthusiasm I tried to follow the instructions on the box to cook pasta. Ahem! it was all rubbery and tasteless!! for one thing, it wasn't cooked enough and to add to it, almost 40% of the ingredients required to make pasta sauce were not available. (I think most of them were important ingredients). So that was the only time I touched that pasta packet. It kept lying on the shelf until I threw if off when we shifted the house.

This week, I decided to give it a try again. My friend, Saumya told me about her pasta recipe (which gave me a sort of confidence that pasta can be made at home after all). So here is what I figured out,

1. The traditional al dente is not what I like
2. Cheese gives nice (yummy) texture to the sauce
3. Buy the sauce too

This time, I picked up farfalle pasta (again, because I loved the shape) and got one pasta sauce bottle. Cooked pasta while checking every now and then to make sure that it is cooked the way I like it..... after that, it was just anybody's game.

I loved my pasta!

Collage using Tabblo

Collage using Tabblo
Originally uploaded by vaishalee

It's pretty neat tool to create quick collages. There are options of uploading photos or selecting them from your flickr stream.

The interface is cool enough.... although I would have loved to tilt the pictures (for that messy effect). The drag-n-drop thing makes it damn easy to make collage with the flickr pics. Oh yes, you can add text in between as well. They have decent number of templates to choose from and even after choosing a template, you can play around with the photo placement.

A must try!

Backlog

I never am able to catch up with the blog updates I intended to read. It can be attributed to the fact that I (may be) subscribed to too many feeds than I could possibly read.

Since the subscriptions are sorted, I end up clicking on Boing Boing every time I open my reader. I can never finish reading (not even scrolling) the whole stuff. And at the same time I don't want to mark it all read, since I really want to go through it all some time (eventually).

The number of unread posts is not a problem actually, if I just stick to the posts. But you know how it is... you click on a link and then other links and it's just never-ending.

:-)

Right now I see 1600 posts unread......

Yet another year

Yeah, one more year is gone (almost) and my new year resolutions list is all ready. Actually I didn't have to do anything, since it's same as the last year.

LOL.

But on a serious note, I need to hit gym and reduce weight ASAP. Every time I try to get into my old clothes (lets call them Pre-pregnancy clothes.... it makes me feel much better that way), I end up feeling exasperated.

Why can't these extra kilos disappear on their own?

Sigh!

In search of...

I noticed that it's been a while since this place was updated the last time. With Pari around, getting (any) things done is becoming increasingly difficult. I barely manage to post few things in the other blog, so this blog is being neglected for the time being.

Ok, this post is also related to her in a way, but I think it's not just about her. So decided to post it here.

It all started few months back when I stumbled upon this petti-skirts picture in flickr.



I was totally fascinated by these skirts, so decided to get one for Pari. But I could not find any shop which was making them in India (and these skirts are insanely expensive to order from US), so I decided to stitch one myself. I found some videos explaining the process in youtube. It all looked pretty manageable. Thus my hunt for Nylon chiffon started.

I checked couple of places nearby but getting right fabric was not easy (especially when you are staying on Outer ring road). May be I need to hunt in the central Bangalore area, for which I hardly have time. So I decided to check online, if I can find some place which sells the fabric online.

Well, all I got was some links pointing to exporters in India.

:-(

I sent a query to one of the exporter in Bangalore to check if at all he has the required fabric (so that I can may be go to his shop and buy it). But I think this site doesn't work the way I thought it would.

I am getting mails from exporter from all over Asia now. A typical mail reads like this,

Thanks for your inquiry. We mainly do Fabrics from T200-T1600,. width 63"-130" Bamboo, Tencel,modal, Organic cotton, Supima cotton, Egyptian cotton, pima cotton etc. If you need this, please contact us.

They would be so disappointed to know that all I need is about five yards of Nylon chiffon.

Dylan Moran and Eddie Izzard

I love Black Books. Dylan Moran is brilliant in it. Aaditya got a dump of two three seasons from somebody and we were sort of addicted to it. I like the way Dylan has portrayed drunken, unsociable, eccentric Book shop owner. He is a good actor. Alright, he looks cute and that's why I like him.

:-)

Yesterday, I happened to watch couple of Black Books episodes and I was surprised to notice that Dylan has co-written the thing. Wikipedia showed that he is a stand-up comedian, so I searched on youtube and voila! I got clips of some of his tours..... Monster and Like, Totally. They are hilarious. I liked his style of shows... he drinks wine and smokes on stage (sometimes snacks as well). And I think the character of Book shop owner is what he is in his real life. I mean, except the shop owner bit, he is all the other things - drunken, unsociable and eccentric! LOL.

One of the comments on Dylan's episodes mentioned about Eddie Izzard. So the next thing I had to do is to see Eddie's performances. Thanks for youtube, nowadays watching videos is so easy. Ummm, Eddie has his own style (which is similar to that of Dylan's style in a weird way..... Ok, I think it should be other way round, since Eddie is about 9 years older than Dylan). Once you get used to it, you kind of start liking his clothes, his makeup and his shoes (oh, yeah!). And then there is no getting over it. I saw some of his episodes with drag and then there was this interview in which he was normal (I mean not cross dressed)... and I thought - Ummm, he looks more "interesting" when he is all made up.

LOL. May be, that's just me... you can checkout yourself and let me know.

Definition of wife - de la Vatsyayana

Vatsyayana draws a picture of the good wife and may be taken as to be a faithful reflection of real life. The picture exhibits those qualities of service and self-restraint as well as sound household management, which have remained the hallmark of Hindu, wives down to the present day. The wife is supposed to devote herself to her husband as though to a deity. She should personally look after the comforts of her husband. She shares her husband’s fasts and vows, not brooking into refusal. She attends festivities, social gatherings, sacrifices, and religious processions, only with his permission. She engages sports approved by him. She avoids company of disreputable women, shows him no signs of displeasure, and does not loiter about at the doorstep, or in solitary places for a long time. She is not puffed up with prosperity, and she does not give charity to anyone without informing her husband. She honors her husband’s friends, as is their due, with gifts of garlands, unguents, and toilet. She serves her father-in-law and mother-in-law and abides by their commands. When in their presence, she makes no replies, speaks few but sweet words, and does not laugh aloud. She engages servants in their proper work and honors them on festive occasions. Above all, when her husband is gone abroad she lives a life of ascetic restraint: she gives up wearing all ornaments excepting the marks of her married state: she engages in religious rites and fasts: she acts as bidden by her superiors: she does not go out to visit her relations except on occasions of calamities or festivities: when she visits them, she does so only for a short while and in the company of her husband’s people. When her husband returns home, she goes forth immediately to meet him in her sober dress, and then she worships the gods and makes gifts.

Apart from attending to her husband and his parents, relations, as well as his friends, the wife has complete and comprehensive charge of the household. She keeps the household absolutely clean, adorns it with festoons of flowers, and polishes the floor completely smooth. She looks after the worship of the gods at the household shrine and the offering of bali oblations three times a day. In the garden attached to the house she plants beds of various vegetables, herbs, plants, and trees. She keeps a store of various provisions in the house. She knows how to spin and weave, how to look after agriculture, cattle-breeding, and draught animals, how to take care of her husband’s domestic pets and so forth. She frames an annual budget and makes her expenses accordingly. She keeps daily accounts and makes up the total at the end of the day. During her husband’s absence she exerts herself in order that his affairs may not suffer. She increases the income and diminishes the expenditure to the best of her power. In case the woman has a co-wife she looks upon the later as a younger sister when she is older in age, and as a mother when she herself is younger.

I just have one thing to say - I was definitely a husband in my last incarnation ( to be more specific, in the Gupta age).

Shipping to India

Shopping for Pari ends up leaving me exasperated and exhausted.

Not because of number of things I had to buy, but because I wanted to buy the right things. Here in Bangalore, I am finding it really difficult to get good baby products. Most of the things in small shops are run-of-the-mill with low or mediocre quality and things in big shops are way too expensive with very little or no variety to choose from. So most of the times we end up buying very very expensive stuff, since there is no other choice.

It's not necessary that all the products of well known (thus expensive) brands are good. So just going by brand value doesn't really help. It's more about the usability and how well baby accepts it. So far I found that other parents' reviews are very useful.

I spent some time checking reviews in Amazon and decided on couple of products. To my surprise, in spite of being innovative and useful, these product are not expensive. But the problem is, none of them are available in India so I tried to order them from Amazon.

Guess what? They are not delivering in India. I got this message,

*** We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to your selected destination. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order by changing its quantity to 0 and clicking the update button below. (See geographical restrictions.) ***

:-(

These are not bulky things, neither electronics items. I wonder why they are not shipping those to India. When I tried to find more information regarding their "geographical constraints", I found that they are delivering to all over US, including prisons (yes, they have mentioned about it too), but not to India.

I am annoyed!