Holi-er than thou

It is the Indian festival Holi tomorrow. They play it by smearing some dry color in vibrant hues like red, green, magenta, yellow (lemon and cadmium both the shades, I mean you name it they have it) on each other's face, clothes. It makes for a very colorful spectacle all the shops selling bright colors and water pistols which are kids fave.

They fill the water pistol with water and then empty it on some unsuspecting soul passing by.

One thing thats really not good is the use of water balloons. Unsuspecting school/college girls are at the recieving end of this practice by kids and most times goons. The festival seems to give them a licence to leer and smear while saying the adage that goes with this festival - ' Dont mind this because its Holi..

Women who use public transport dread this wonderful festival because of this ugly twist to it. The law is getting stricter by the day though. The kid is out there in the balcony emptying the teeny-weeny water pistol on the potted plants I have outside. That takes care of the watering chore for me hahaa.

I've been trying my hand at various things that I'd never tried before in life. Making some traditional Holi delicacies being one and come 2009 I tried my hand at pickles. I took it up as a challenge. And God was I surprised when it turned out ok. So I got carried away and now have pickled lemon, pickled Indian gooseberry, pickled green chillies all on my shelf with a Indian gooseberry jam bottle too. For Holi I made some fried hard crackers -(mathi) and Gujhiya( Traditional Indian Sweet Puff) which is made of refined white flour kneaded and then rolled out to actually rolling it into small circles , then stuffed and folded/sealed (stuffing is usually Powdered sugar as per taste, Cardamom powder, coconut powder, Dry fruits - pistachios, almonds, sultana's etc) And of course then deep fried like the crackers.

It took all day yesterday and two hours today to wrap it off. Hmm not bad - I liked the experience. I am constantly amazed at myself. From being a diehard feminist in college and radical/rebel against the stereotypical roles cut out for women in the Indian society- to fighting the caste system of this country, I have come a long way.

Actually die hard feminism in India some years ago just translated into wearing westerns, and not accepting the gender unequality prevalent in the home, the street, the school/college and then later the office. If you did this then you were a feminist. Now I have changed and how.
Cooking is pretty theraupatic just like gardening I feel.
Ok guys happy Holi to all of you!
:)

Coincidence!

Just yesterday I mentioned the state of the Indian roads and today a leading news daily (TOI) has 'sms joke of the day' on it which is -

'There are only two kinds of roads in India.

One is under construction, and the other is under repair.'

Indian..(Delhi) roads

Been a pathetic day..Indian roads.
Potholed, missing, bumper to bumper traffic for miles simply because a small car is parked by some thoughtless soul ( but why the traffic jam, since its a 4lane road and the car is parked in one corner of the road, there shouldnt be any problem in traffic passing. Oh how could I forget the rubbernecking syndrome every (ok to be just not every but almost every) Indian suffers from - that explains the jam.) and if everything else is allright? Then well, cordoned off for some new construction happening. Imagine a stretch of one kilometer taking 30 minutes..

Well the song 'country roads take me home' comes to my mind all twisted


'Delhi roads dont take me home
keep me glued on the road
with all the honks
and emissions..Delhi roads

Usually we try to avoid these roads by taking the route most used by the VIP's ( President/prime minister of India) which by far are the best roads in the city. But you see it isnt possible every single day. Because one's business does tend to be in different parts of the city..

On top of all this an angry partner doesnt help - mouthing/shouting choicest words punctuated with honks. Boy am I glad the horn aint working well anymore.

It was overused
- how long could it survive
this relentless honking of
day and night..

oh well twas a long and tiring day. Maybe some other day we can come back to this topic.

I Have Been Presented With The Fabulous Blog Award

I just went visiting Rick's site as I do everyday and read his latest blog entry which said 'I Have Been Presented With The Fabulous Blog Award' and felt happy for Rick because he is good at it, then sighed for I guess I know its next to impossible me getting this award and continued reading while ho-hum-ing and then when I came to the line where he says -

'I would like to pass this award to the following blogs:'
I almost fainted to see my name there. I mean my blogs name. I felt tears sting my eyes and that again took me by surprise because I didnt know it would touch me so much because I've never gone by the validation process in life..
Hey Rick, thanks, I appreciate this.

The rules for the "Fabulous Blog" award are:

You must pass it on to 5 other Fabulous Bloggers in a post receiving the award.
You must include the person that gave you the award, and link it back to them.
You must list 5 of your Fabulous addictions in the post.
You must copy and paste these rules in the post.

My 5 fabulous addictions/interests are:

my kid
poems
reading
music
love ( 'Love' used to enjoy the first spot always and look how the mighty have fallen - to the last place.)

I would like to pass this award to the following blogs:

http://themanwhowalksalonewalksfaster.blogspot.com/
http://ricksgarden.blogspot.com/
http://dtrant.blogspot.com/
http://anyonething.blogspot.com/
http://ninechainstothemoon.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for the Award!!!

I am honored to join the club. :) thank you.

What is the world coming to?

The attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Pakistan is shocking.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/homepage/i/int/news/world/1/-/news/1/hi/world/south_asia/7920260.stm



http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?655165

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/video_streaming.php

Nothing was sacred ever for the terrorists except their religion - which is terrorism. This is the only religion which teaches to kill innocent people. No religion preaches killing..So the terrorists only have terrorism as their religion. They cannot call any other religion their own.

Somewhere deep down in the monsters psyche lurks a male I used to think, who cheers at goals, and has the same adrenaline rush on great scores.

But they have proven again and again that terrorism has no religion and terrorism holds nothing sacred.

I am sorry but I feel I am not coherent, but my mind aint worlking at all..I am shocked.


Meanwhile politicians in Pakistan are busy with their own agenda..

Attack on Lankan team just like 26/11: Pak Punjab Guv

I am being just plain lazy. There is no excuse for not writing since the past few days. And its not that I havent switched the computer on these past few days. Rather I have sitting (literally) on the computer watching the comings and goings, and visiting a few good souls
( oops Jo would/might have a problem about the usage of the word 'soul' for I have visited her blog and she aint sure whether she has a soul or not)

Ok jus kiddin Jo, hope you dont mind it.

And for all ye Indians out there still claiming 'Slumdog millionaire' as an Indian film this is what Danny boyle has to say -

"I am truly happy that every Indian I meet is beaming, and it is the ultimate compliment for me that people in India see 'Slumdog Millionaire' as an Indian film. However in reality it is a British film. It is very gritty in the begining and very realistic because our film culture is based on that kind of realism which in Bollywood (ouch) and Hollywood (double ouch) isnt quite there".

Too Just..

'10 years on, kidnappers get life term'

Headline of a leading newspaper screams today. You go like 'What' and grab the paper to read whether you did get what they are saying. Oh yes tis true. Its another peerless example of the Indian justice system or the mockery of it.

It so happens that in this case a 3 year old boy was kidnapped by 3 men some 10 years ago, who later let the boy go unharmed, scotfree. ( thank God for that at least) So the High Court here refused to show any leniency towards the kidnappers , or heed their argument that they should be spared a life term because the boy was allowed to go unharmed. Dismissing the
appeals filed by the trio, the court stated,"the very act of kidnapping a child and demanding ransom for his release , by the very nature of the act, would give rise to a reasonable apprehension that a child would be hurt or killed if the ransom is not paid".

It all very well and I am not disputing the verdict because I firmly believe that the hand of the law should be swift and firm. Now 'swift' is impossible in this country, but 'firm' aye, they were in this case.

The only problem I see in India is the way they treat their women. The case I wrote ( label India) about a few days ago here where a convict ( who had raped and later driven a girl to suicide) according to the court "had redeemed himself by simply cracking the UPSC ( civil services) exam". Though he has been deemed an offender but he was out on bail, and in fact the court thought that the mere 5 years the accused had served in prison was sufficient punishment suffered especially since he had gotten through an exam ( the whole country is obsessed with )

So what is it with the Indian judges anyway? Do they feel so strongly against the kidnappers in this case because the kidnapped was a 'boy' and not a lil girl, or do they think that 'raping a human being and later driving them to suicide by blackmailing' is a lesser crime of the two??

Obama works his magic..

Obama has started taking steps towards the 'Magical Obamah Reign'..All the best America. We need nothing short of a miracle here to get us out of the financial mess and Obama has started working his magic.

Hope he knows his spells. Fingers crossed..

By 'here' I mean 'the world', because what happens in the States has repurcussions the world over..heck India went into the panic mode as soon as the "US economic Crisis' news swept the world.