Tea & Dark Chocolate

So who will read my fortune from this? :) After being in the limbo of will-drink-some-day, the teas that I bought from Teavana store in Bellevue Square Mall are finally seeing the light of the day. These are the remains of the Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate , a very tart, sweetish tea. Loved it!

Before I fall By Lauren Oliver - Goodreads Link - Here Though it starts off as being a bookish version of Mean Girls, this book is anything but that, or may be it is. The way you look at it, that is. I loved what the author tried doing with this book, by spinning 7 different versions of the same situations, and showing how one small action by Sam can change the course of action of the entire situation, something like The Butterfly Effect. And how one should treasure the people that matter to them and the memories associated with them. I totally loved how Sam's character evolves with each day, and how her relationship with Kent changes with each day, so much so that, by the end of the book, Kent and Sam left a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart, something that resembles to seeing two people you really like falling in love, and you being aware of each detail of it. Another important angle in this book is perspective. We all are right in our stories, and we are the heroes in our sto...

  It feels good to know that there are thousands of people like us, bibliophiles, who’d rather be reading a book than be with people, who’d rather have a beautiful story in an imaginary world they spun than be in this world full of lies, and who love their books more than they love their clothes and shoes! For Bookfessions, refer to this Tumblr. Brilliant blog! Bookfessions – Link Some of my confessions - - I was once caught reading a book which was hidden in a bigger text book in the middle of a class, not by the teacher who was in the class, but by the headmistress who was on her morning rounds. Guess, what happened next goes without saying. :-) - When we met the first time, the minute husband said that he reads books, and that he loves Godfather, I had a good feeling about us. Well, he was one of the first men I met who had read and loved Godfather as much as I had. And oh yes, apparently, I was the first girl he met who had liked Godfather as much as he did. It goes witho...

is this – My mortar and pestle. After having gotten over the excitement of having this awesome looking pitcher , am back to being in love with this… :-D What’s yours? [Also cross posted at my food blog, The Meal Algorithm here]

Ideally, that is how I would like to introduce myself when anyone asks me where I am from. I generally resort to saying am from Karnataka or from Mangalore depending on whether am in a mood for a deeper conversation on that day. And then I smile and listen to how the other person says I don’t look like a South Indian at all. If it is someone who is familiar with how women from Konkan region look like, they will then admit that I look like someone they know, someone from Mangalore or Belgaum. But more often than not, people immediately say, I look like a Punjabi , because of my loud voice. Or a Gujarati because of the name. Or a Telugu, because of the surname. And then cringe in my mind. Why? Why don’t I look like a South Indian? Each of these attributes are because I am a Mangalorean. To be precise, a Shivalli Brahmin . Well, not many have even heard of this community. Am missing home. And by home, I don’t mean my parent’s place or my own place here in Hyderabad. I am definitely missi...

  This is originally posted at the Flickr page, and should actually be at the Food Blog, but I love this pic for all the colours in it. And hence, here it is… For the May be a 365 tag. :)

  Next month, I and the husband hit our 6th wedding anniversary. Its nice being married this long, especially when you have not thought you’d do it yourselves. More so, when you both knew it was a gamble you were taking on and had even told that to yourselves and each other. Being as different as chalk and cheese apart, sustaining a marriage this long with serious full time careers, pursuing independent hobbies, having enough space between each other, and still finding time to spend with each other is a big deal. At least for those of us who are commitment-phoebes even after having being married, i.e.., the two of us in this household. Also, any two people who have no reason to be together except that they want to be and hence are. Well, now you can now imagine how elated I feel every time we hit an anniversary. We made it to another year. With our head and heart intact. And sane too. A big big big deal! Like I said, its nice being married this long. You would’ve shared all sto...

Trust me, being cynical about things suits me. Or being highly philosophical , for that matter. A great deal. I don't have to worry about the end result. I don't have to deal with anxieties or cold feet or worries. I only have to do my share of the work. And leave the rest to destiny/ Karma /Universe. Things will work out the way they were designed to be. But you know what I miss the most about being this way ? The ability to feel. To cry. To fret on things/people. To possess. To desperately want something. Well, I am not a saint. I do feel all the above. But only for an extremely small fleeting second, and the practical self kicks in. And all these feelings vanish. Just like that. Kinda boring, no? :-)

  I was listening to Lana Del Ray ’s songs and the whole discussion about true-love started in my mind between the eternal-cynic and the once-sentimental selves about what true love is, if it exists and if it really is over-rated. That’s when I remembered an old post of mine. Something I wrote back in 2008, when the song The Reason was on my playlist non-stop. Am pleasantly surprised to know that my thoughts about love have not changed much. Some excerpts from the original post… Does this kind of love exist? I know love is beautiful, and its the best thing to happen to a person and all that jazz. I know you feel completed when you are in love, and I also know that its lucky to find love. But this kind of love, the one mentioned in the song, like how you feel like holding the tears, how you can never ever forgive for giving her some pain... this one is beyond me. Either I forgot how it is to be in love, that fresh feeling, or I never felt that kind of an emotion, both of which ...

If you love food, you must read this book. If you loved the family meals, and stories shared during those meals, you must read this book. Diana talks about all the meals she has shared with her family cooked by her Dad, Bud over a number of years. There are stories which talk about comfort food, food to impress people, food when some family members got angry, and food to cure your soul. Its a long recipe book with personal stories for each of the recipes. All of them in exquisite detail in terms of the story and the recipe, both. If you are a foodie, you will even find yourself drooling as you read some of these recipes. If you want to understand the Jordanian way of living, eating and existing, you must read this book. There are elaborate stories about stays in Jordan, dwelling into the way the Bedouins live, the food natives eat, and their gregarious method of eating. If you are an Asian, you will find yourself smiling at most of these, and even tell yourself with a little reproac...

To God. That’s what I felt when I saw these places. Breath-taking is not the word I am looking for. Feeling closer to God. Being one with Nature. Beauty so magnificent that no amount of photography can capture it. Tongue-tied because you are Mesmerized by the surroundings. That moment when you feel you’ve seen everything in your life, and you don’t mind if it ends. Right there. That moment in time when you don’t want to share with anyone, and also want to share with everyone you love. You know fully well that you can never describe how you feel about this moment. Your own particular place of worship. Your Zen . Unending peace. A time so beautiful that you almost choke with emotion. A place and time when you lose track of yourself and everything around you. What I am looking for is one word which will sum all these feelings. I felt all these, and so much more. So much that these places will always have a special place in my heart. And create an yearning to go back there again. The ...

Has been good, I must say. For travel, friends, books, food, work and life in general.   Some friendships which I know will last my entire life have happened this year… Smart , intelligent women who will continue to matter a lot … I couldn’t have asked for more this year in terms of friendships. Visits to and from friends who don’t stay in Hyderabad have happened this year, strengthening the bond we share… This post sums it all!   Cooking, baking and shooting the stuff that’s made, all of this has taken a new level altogether this year. I’ve become more serious about what I cook and how I shoot it, which is a good sign. It might be that one thing that really interests me, even if it is for the moment. More focus on healthy eating, and getting in all the vitals into the food has been taken this year, and with the cook being around for help, kitchen is not an area am scared of anymore! All this is documented on the food blog, and pics are on the Flickr page. The Meal Algor...

  Book Goodreads link – Here Heart-wrenchingly genuine story of a 10 year old Hazara boy's journey from a war-struck grief-laden Afghanistan to Italy, via many countries and deportations. However, everything in this book is what we already know through a zillion NYTimes or Times articles -  the living conditions in Afghanistan, the different routes people take to get away from Afghanistan, the situation of immigrants in Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece. The book follows a very narrative tone, with the boy , now a grown adult himself talking to the author, I highly even doubt if the author changed the tenses. So this book does not do anything to your senses in terms of its language or how it portrays the situations back then. You will have to get this picture from the author's words, and by imagining it all, which is not a pretty picture. There is no doubt that this is a story that should be told, to understand and never be able to fathom the horrors the country has see...