Realisations...lately.

1. Love makes your world go round....and square, rectangle and what not! It's like watching the stars descend and kiss your feet goodnight...every night :)

2. Have you ever said "I Love you" and meant it? In case you haven't, please do! It will make you the happiest person on this planet.

3. I am nowadays training to be that perfect homemaker. I can now wash bedsheets and jeans on my own, without a washing machine that is. Quite an acheivement for daddy's little girl na? :D

4. It feels liberating when I pay my own bills. Pay through those vouchers when we go to eat out. And buying those flight tickets back home- first time with my own money. I remember everytime I deceided lastminute to go back home when  all the flights were dangeously overpriced and all I needed to do was to call up dad and start crying :P. Did you ever watch that Mastercard ad?

5. I have this huge crush on Shashi Tharoor. Probably the second longest one. And I am just completely in aw of him. Wonder what made him marry a garishly decorated woman like her :( I am jealous! Also, I am yet to finish his article in Deccan Chronicle this week. My bad luck :(

6. I have discovered almost all good loooking eateries in and around Madhapur. I promise myself everyweek that I won't have so much outside food next weekend, but then again friday night comes and I crave for Chinese. That reminds me. I have discovered this amazing small bengali food joint near that Madhapur petrol bunk called "Tumpa". Seriously! it's awesome and so cool on your pockets. so any bong out there (in and around Madhapur/ Jubilee Hills) who is missing home food and ont want to spend so much on that overhyped "Calcutta Cabin" can surely go there. It's alsmot like a Dada Boudi's hotel. And you will be amazed to see the amount of bengalis out here only in Madhapur. Every time I walk down my lane I can hear somebody or the other blabbering his/her way to glory in probbaly the sweetest language on the planet (ok! I will consider Urdu and am yet to learn French so....)

7. I think I am just in awe of someone. That one guy who discusses and gives me random gyan about India's foreign policy. Can educate me big time on India's defense policy. The one with whom I can share my views about Atish Taseer's that 'now' much talked about article. And how he makes a point that Taseer, with all due repect, doesn't make any new point..academically speaking. And then we discuss why is this one special...may be because of that politically overhyped parentage...and the real pain that Taseer faced. You see! I think you are just plain and simple "awesome". Be my friend. Always :)

Being in love :)

Nothing in this world can match up to the ecstasy of falling in love, but I think nothing, and I repeat, NOTHING can be like the feeling of 'being in love'.

It's all but natural that most of us have pondered many times over about what exactly to tag as love and what just another passing thought (ah! you can term that as 'chhok'- enlightened people who understand 'this' will appreciate- others just forget about it :)), but when you meet someone...you know he is the 'one'. Yes! the kind of proverbial, cheesy- 'someone special'...you know it from the very beginning....and coming from someone who has believed all her life that "being in love is a state of mind", you got to take that seriously.

does that feeling change you? transform you?...Well! it just makes your friend and family complain that they you dont have time for them anymore :) It makes some one google 'purboraag'. It makes a self confessed Bihari babu take a liking for everything Bengali (which coincidentally is his mother tounge too :P)Change..yes! thats happens a bit....you remember 'him' everytime some one mentions something even remotely funny you shared with him. and you talk...talk absolute nonsense.take his trip.make him promise that he will buy you what not....and then think again......and talk...and moments are created one after the other....forever.

To say 'thank you' for letting me be myself...and to accept me the way I am, will be..err! quite dishy and PDA stuff, which I am told is not quite fashionable. But then agian, who doesn't like mush? and who minds all those couple things?

Looking forward to a lifetime worth of 'friendly dinners'. :)

Hyderabad Blues

 That's one of my favourite films. May be my love for the Kukunoor film had some chitchat while destiny was planning it out for me. On second thoughts- can love talk? yes it can :) and it can say "I love you" too :)coming back to Hyderabad, it's almost like second home now. The city saw me grow up. It has been through the many ups and a few downs I have gone through in my life. Agreed, there is nothing like Calcutta, but Hyderabad you will always remain special to me. Yes, may be this is the first time I am acknowledging this on a public forum, but yes! I am in love :) with the city :) And I still long to go back to Calcutta. That's the only place on this earth I call 'Home'. (Reiterated the umpteenth time) Oh1 wait, wasn't this post titled Hyderabad blues?


Blues! yes. They are everywhere nowadays. that muddy puddle I need to cross everyday while I go to office. The silent drizzle on the glass and the greens of the Durgam Chevuru lake....and the perfectly controlled silence inside the office. The deadlines...now I know what is called one :) Crazy schedules. dog tired weekends. Living alone. No friends to do all the random bakwaas. (Oh! they are back again in Hyderabad :P)

......blues. It's everywhere.

Wish there was a dhaba trip planned. and bhutta.

And wish he was here.

Part II

"You know he had called!"
"Oh! finally"
"What did he say?"
"Nothing much. just wished me luck for the upcoming fashion show"
"Just that"
"Yep! told that he was thinking of calling up to wish me."

(normal coffee shop and other chitchat follows, Mr.Nanda's daughter dating a college dropout occupies a primary position)

"Weird na?"
"What? yeah...a bit weird...may be he is taking his time"

"You still feel he has somebody else in his mind? and that he is doing all this to keep his parents happy?"

"Umm..no?"
"How come?"

"He is the one am going to marry :) that's why"

"Woah, so sure"

"**Touchwood*"

Diksha Soone, Bombay, 2003

Saat phera and all that jazz!

Is he is he not the perfect marriage material? Is he gonna buy me that occassional diamond? ;-) Is he the type who take you out for romantic dinner dates-the candle light ones?? Is he gonna celebrate every other day with like number of long stemmed red roses?

Is he the one I can bitch about the uber hot girl who sits besides me or take investment tips from?


2 months later-

"Is he ever going to call me up?"


Diksha Soonee, Bombay, 2003 (to be continued)

"Aamar shokol niye boshey achi shorbonasher ashay...."

bohukaal agey kono priyo kobi likhechilen...shotti kothata bhashay prokash korar er theke sohoj ar bodhogommyo upay bodhhoy ar thakena majhe majhe...mane ei je...onyo karo kobitar line churi kora.....tobe ei muhurtey e chara upay o nei....

:)  

(not open to interpretation) 

All's well that ends well.

So it's here. well, almost! I have waited for this day to come during many forlorn afternoons when I hated doing my project work, or during those bouts of loneliness which every one of us has gone through here-the utmost pining to go back home, or may be during those stressful days before recruitment when you never actually knew what are the interviewers going to actually ask you, or plain and simple exam time and more importantly results when you almost always never knew what went wrong with your answers. That and this.

And now when it's here, almost, I feel sad. The bouts of nostalgia springs up now and then..and the fact that I probably attended the last class of my student life, at least for the near future on 21st is yet to sink in.....I am yet to reconcile with the fact that 1.5 months from now I am not going to return back here and do all that that we have been doing as a batch for the past nine semesters. The tenth one is the final one. wake up kid! No am not a kid anymore you see. No more college student tag. No more notes photocopying tension. No more NALSAR. 

No more Carpe Diem practices, no more blue skies, no more evening chai, no more intense hours of leg pulling sessions with Shreya and Paridhi, no more long extended gossip sessions, no more random cooking sessions with Papa, runjhun and all, no more long discussions about Dil, Dosti etc. with Runjhun, shreya, Paridhi, Richa, Tavishi, Joyee, Pami, no more trip taking on 'why you are looking hot', no more world cup cheers in the common room with deeps, raadhika, swetali, samiksha, atrey, sadhika. No more intellectualized gossip with Runjhun and dhruv. No more dancing our hearts out on DJ night. No more random link ups with Satshya, Amrita and even more random Happy Birthdays in the mess and the class. No more classes. No more catching up on left over sleep (:P) No more sprinting against the sprinklers on lane while going to the mess. No more Tresspassing on the lawn while saying it aloud to the guard "Bhaiya, 5th year mein hain hum". No more "mim mim" and pandey jokes. No more Sunday breakfasts, Tuesday vadas and sambhar or Wednesday Appam. No more Tuesday dinner noodles. No more 12'o clock birthdays in the hostel. No more series of Happy Birthday songs after the cake cutting. No more 9'o clock TV watching and discussing why we don't meet guys like Madhavan in real life. No more socialising in the library . No more fretting over deadlines. The actual ones beckon now. No more NALSAR.

It's the time to write about memories of these five years for the college brochure. It's the time to say good bye. The series of farewell parties which saw the ladies swinging from the traditional saris to beautiful dresses in a span of one day-The Faculty lunch, The Vice Chancellor's dinner, the lunch for the non teaching staff, the juniors, the hostel party, the official college (SBC) farewell and the party thrown next day by juniors at Spoil- all of them are over now. The guys dressed up for a change and we had so many pictures clicked with all...old rivalries, cold wars, bitching forgotten. We will treasure all these memories....and the batch t-shirt....the controversy around it was not required, but now I have something to remind me (not that I need to be reminded) that the batch of 2006-2011 lived! and how :)

Good bye NALSAR! You gave me probably the best five years of my life. From the days of a carefree little girl to a twenty three year old girl who thinks (and only she thinks) that she knows the way of the world....you opened up horizons and opportunities for me which I would have probably never got if I didn't decide to leave the comforts of home at seventeen. Thank you is too small a word I suppose :)

Nuggets and more.

1. Now that house hunting is over, at least temporarily, I am gearing up for the big shift from being a student to a working lady soon. Well, a few days are still left before I graduate and I am enjoying it to the hilt, but I am also super excited to start work soon. I am going to miss being a student....but I am sure I will enjoy being the responsible taxpayer too. May be change is the only constant in life.

2. The jealous glares do amaze me now and then, but doesn't matter anymore. Koi nahi, pay package aur brand value hazam honey mein thoda time to lagega hi :) :P More so when they asked for that all out war while shouting from the rooftops. But truly speaking, I am at peace with myself. And nothing makes me happier than that.

3. That reminds me. I love to stay happy. My friends often compliment me (at least I count it to be a compliment) as "being high on life". True. I really dont need to take refuge to alcoholic drinks or smoking for that  matter to get that high. I don't have nay issues with people who drink or smoke, but somehow I still prefer my glass of "coca cola on the rocks" :P in parties.

4. Have lately taken a lot of interest in learning Continental dishes. I have learnt quite a bit of Indian sabzi daal and stuff by now. Have to learn 'amish' (non vegetarian) cooking though. But I am trying to pick up Italian and stuff from my friends who are really good at it. And guess what? I suppose I can cook a proper Italian meal now for the people who matter :) Learnt how to make mouthwatering Pasta (the red sauce variety), Sauteed Mushrooms and the mashed potato with garlic and milk. They tasted nice. Considering I know how to make Pizzas already, the Italian thing is quite a deal now I suppose :D. What next? may be lasagna :) and obviously chitol macher muithya which I have been trying to learn for quite some time now. I love to cook. It's therapeutic.

5. Have been reading this book called "The red Carpet" by Lavanya Sankaran. Considering that bookstores do sell it within the same bracket of a few books titled "Anything for you ma'am", "Oh! shit, not again", "Ofcourse I love you, until I find some one better"- I was obviously apprehensive (am even more apprehensive of the people who consider themselves literary enthusiasts after reading the above mentioned books and go ga ga over them- nothing personal against anybody, you might find my "Sesher Kobita". "Uaccustomed Earth", "A suitable Boy", "Hamlet" or "Angels and Demons" boring too...but it's just a personal take). But coming back to the point that is...I like the book...and the author. She is good...very different from the cult that she is being promoted as a part of. She writes about Bangalore....I quite liked the place, the one single time I visited it....but the very bong Calcutta (and to some extent Sunu Da's GK II and it's proximity to CR Park neighbourhood) enthusiast me also found it a very endearing and honest effort. Some day I would love to do a similar anthology on "Calcutta". There might be thousands of them...because "ei shahor janey amar prothom sobkichu"...but it will be the stories I want to tell :)

6. It's the last two day weekend in college. The remaining will have working Saturdays....somehow, the five years, though they didn't just pass by like that, was quite a journey. A journey that made women out of girls. :)

Lush blue and ecstatic green.

Does the title sound a bit odd? Well! it is meant to be :) Or to put it this way- These are the predominant colours of my life right now. Blue, as you must have guessed, is the bleeding obsession of the nation as we gear up for another cricket World Cup final tomorrow. And needless to say, the common room atmosphere is electrifying...so is the ambiance near the giant screen while the India matches are on!

And green we are...definitely...not with envy...but ecstatically proud of the vibrant batch...the best of the placements and LLM application acceptances (Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, NYU- you name it- we have it :P)- the batch of 2006-2011 is all fireworks!! "Amra nobin/ Amra Chonchol" and if I may add "Amra sobuj" :P :D

And that green thing is kind of infectious since we won Carpe Diem 2011 (our very own Intra college fest) with whopping margin of 2200 points. Agreed final years are vella and stuff...but this victory was extra sweet with those numerous 'batch' moments emerging in the dance rehearsals, movie spoof planning and the finale night- glimpses of which have been captured to be part of our facebook albums and in our minds...forever....a deleted photo tag can't undo the emotions of hysterical laughing and trip taking right?

That reminds me...this journey is almost over..or rather the phase of life that we emphatically remember as 'student life' is coming to an end and though I cribbed and jostled through these five years to get over, am really feeling sad after these days...I am going to miss the randomness. The part of being the batch of 2011 (that I always will be). The feeling of random "le lena" sessions that could commence anytime....To think of it the giant cauldron called NALSAR did something good for all of us....all of us from varied backgrounds and different parts of the country..some form way beyond...a few whom I might never meet after these days get over as they will move back to their own countries :))

The batch photoshoot was as enlightening as these five years have been and thanks to Swetali we have candid shots through the 'other' camera (the official one being the one used for the university publication stuff). Lot sof newly discovered link ups, happy birthday (you have to be from NALSAR to know the enigma of a happy birthday) and sheer joy of being a batch. From the cold wars to back biting, bitching, friendships, moments and pride- we have seen it all....but when we go out, we go out as a happy batch. 

So, am happy wappy and waiting for my batch t shirt to arrive- with the motif of the legendary neem tree on it. NALSARite forever :))

Nostalgia reigns supreme for me nowadays :))

P.S.- Have been away from my blog for  long..was pretty caught up with Carpe Diem planning and practice, submissions, house hunting and a few more interesting stuff you see :))

Good food that makes you think.

A deferred conversation which many people prefer calling email in the pedantic sense of the term, made me crave about home food...bong food...ghar ka khana...maa er hater ranna!!!!! Jyotika at the same time shared this awesome blogpost with me were a fellow blogger rants about her love for all things good about food...and no prizes for guessing...that essentially related to bong food :P. 

It's not a fact anymore but common knowledge that I love eating. Listing out favourites will be a cardinal sin, but yet I will go ahead with a few for which I have perennial craving for. and a few suggestion here and there.

1. Phuchka- This had to top the list. Panipuri, golgappas etc. etc. please take a backseat because nothing and i repeat NOTHING makes you ga ga about street food as authentic Calcutta Phuchka does. 

My picks- a) Rajender phuchka near Dakshinapon. b) CR Park Market No 1 phuchkawallah in New Delhi c) Sindhi Colony in Hyderabad (I located that one!)

2. Chitol Macher muithya- Uff!!! I am really going weak on my knees imagining those fishballs in that temting gravy. 

My pick- nobody makes it as good as my didun. Period. Already have the recipe with me, will learn it form her directly soon. I wish I could cook like her though.

3. Ilish mach- I love this one...prepared anyways. While the bangal way of preparing it on Sarswati pujo (light gravy with eggpants and kalojeerey) remians a favourite, I love the bhapa, bhaja and all other known varieties.

My pick- My pishimoni and Ma's kitchen.

4. Kochur shaak/bata/koura, Karkone bata, dhoney pata bata- Traditional ghotis can smirk at this one, but trust me, it tastes like heaven...of course you need good cooks at helm. My experience tells that true blue blooded ghotis also have enjoyed this fare at one of my relative's place...and needless to say they were always asking for more. In case you have a thing for spicy food and good food in general...do try!!

My picks- Again my Ma and Pishimoni's kitchen.

5. Vada/ Sambhar/ Crispy Dosa- I have to agree that this is an acquired taste and thankfully I wa slucky enough to discover this one. Tuesday morning breakfast in the mess means yumm Sambhar and Vada. Me and my friend tavishi have this alltime craving for the sambhar prepared Tuesdays and Sunday mornings. They taste so good and better than the other days. 

My picks- NALSAR university mess and Minerva Coffee shop in Hyderabad.

6. Fried Rice/Noodles/Bekti and Chilly/Schezuan/Lemon/pepper chicken..anything Chinese- I adore. Simply. Can have Chinese anytime of the day. 

My picks- quite a long list actually- a) Mainland China, Calcutta (Hyd one is not that good), b) China Town in Calcutta (any restaurant is good enough though my vote goes for Beijing and Bigg Boss) c) Ten Downing street in Hyderabad d) A newly opened eatery near my place...near the golfgreen more (forgot the name) e) Chungwa in New Delhi and e) Nan King in Hyderabad (obviously!!)

7. Mutton Kosha/Biriyani- Quite a tie. And i love them both. Acquired a taste for biriyani after coming to Hyderabad. 

My picks- For Mutton Kosha, has to be my mom's kitchen. I will try out Golbaari for sure sometime soon in Calcutta. For Briyani- Paradise in Hyderabad. Iconic and the winner all the way. In case you cant manage a seat at the upstairs restaurant, go for the take away. you will not rue it. Arsalan in Calcutta.

8. Subway- I love subway. It changed my perception about breads and sandwiches in general. Frankly speaking, before trying Subway I never thought that my taste buds can be friendly to breads also, since I am quite a rice person. But healthy eating at Subway makes me feel good. Love the Salads, cookies and of course the sandwich there.

9. Chocolate fudge from Nahoum's- That explains it all. 70 years and counting..threats of closure and change of ownership notwithstanding, the charm of Nahoum's continues..just like good old Calcutta and New market.

10. Nolen gurer sondesh and mishti doi- I am not a sweet dish fan and that's very hard to gulp down for some  of my non bong friends. But my bong sweet tooth makes an appearance here and there even when I have a preference for everything 'jhaal'. Give me nolen gurer sondesh from Balaram or Kalpana near my house and I will die for you.

And mishti doi!!! I love!! more than ice cream....in fact I respect houses which serve mishti doi as the dessert instead of ice cream. It's not a popular choice so many people don't serve it on occasions anymore. High on calorie, dalda and blah blah...but who cares. Kalpana's mishti doi...and I keep on dreaming!!!

In case you are counting calories after reading this...can't help it dear. who cares about calories when you can dream about the creamy and delicious mishti doi?