It may be odd, but I did not have a celebrity crush during when I was younger. However, I did have my first celebrity crush a few years back. It must be said that while I was in the first blush of that emotion, I got over it pretty soon. Imagine you have a nice, big balloon. It couldn’t be more perfect! Then all of sudden you just pop it with a nice big needle. That is exactly what happened to my first celebrity crush.
I watched a movie – Baahubali. I even wrote about it here. And therefore my crush was none other than RDags. For a while. Then I saw a few YouTube videos of his interviews and promptly crushed that crush. It couldn’t be helped. But for the other RDags fans, if you can find @nandu on twitter, your TL will be blessed with goodness. (She does do vanishing acts from time to time.)
Being as sheltered as I was (:roll:), my first exposure to piercings out of the normal was post-college. On an overseas trip, we were dining al fresco when I saw someone sitting at the table in front of us. His back was turned towards us. And what do I see, piercings going down the nape of his neck. Little nubs of metal adorning the path that would represent his spine. My immediate reaction was a chill down my own spine imagining the pain of it when getting the procedure done, and the inconvenience when sleeping. Can you imagine?!?!?!
Personally, the only piercings I have are in my ear. One per ear and I got them when I was 28 days old! I did ask my mother why she got them done then and the reply was, as Malayalees around the world christen their babies on the 28th day, they also pierce their ears. My grandmother, on the other hand, told me that it was just a convenient time to get it done since the baby does not have the strength to rub or pull at the ear. That was the story behind the tradition.
I did want to get a second piercing done on my ears when I went to college, but my family was dead against it. The reason being that people of ‘our class’ did not do such vulgar things. Well, what can one say to that! No reasoning with such logic. It was not worth fighting a battle over and besides, I was way too busy with college to be bothered about it.
Then came a phase when I wanted a tattoo. I wanted a peacock feather coming out a flute – the two symbols of one of my favourite gods, Krishna. And then there was Kat Von D’s program on TLC where every episode was about people coming into her store to get tattooed.
LA Ink rid me of the wish in the span of one episode. I am not that brave or thick skinned. Not to mention that I am not going to inflict pain upon myself for the sake of vanity. And thus ended the ‘wanting a tattoo’ phase.
Do you how difficult it was to find an old photo of me, that was in any way simple and did not have my devious streak shining through!
Finally, I found out something that fits the profile. And I have blogged about it as well. It is a rather immature rant. The background to that story is – we were a team of three and shared a nice sized cubicle. It was private and surrounded by empty cubicles all around us. One day out of the blue, we were assigned to different workstations. A split that did not go well for the three of us.
When you read the post, I am sure you will realize that I am being rather dramatic about the whole thing. But eventually, we got over it and went on to create a lot of good memories together.
And here are the photos of me and Sail, taken by BizTrvia taken on a brand new camera phone (now considered crappy by all standards). Sail has such a beautiful smile! And being the baby of the lot means I got to pose for a nap time photo as well. lol!
I am pretty sure that you would have wondered why I even blogged then and how crappy I was. The comments are even better. And if you look closely, you can see my ‘aquarium’ behind me in two photos. What is life without a little creativity!
And life has come a long way, from being dramatic and writing a convoluted mess, to making a little more sense and being a very tiny bit more mature.
And disclaimer – there are photos from my Instagram included in this post. I hope you are not done with your meal yet 😉
1 – First off, I love my Coffee. Not any coffee, but proper filter coffee that my mom makes. I mean one can brew it with Bru instant, but it doesn’t come close to that particular emotion that a good filter coffee invokes. And you cannot find the same thing anywhere else, but in here in Tamil Nadu. Also, there is nothing like mummy’s coffee, in my cup to begin my day!
2 – Breakfast. I love breakfast foods. Being a south Indian means idli or dosa for breakfast most days, which I am okay with. Idli or dosa with sambhar or chutney works fine, sometimes mummy goes an extra mile with her ‘chinna vengaya (shallot) sambhar’ or a chicken curry. Those days breakfast becomes a very elevated experience. Sundays are favourites though. Toast, grilled veggies etc. I could have breakfast for every meal if I could. I have had cereal, oatmeal, pongal and even mallu staples, the heavy guns of puttu, aapam, even adai at times. The only complaint I have against such a breakfast is the lack of veggies.
This…
…or That
3 – Vegetables! I love my vegetables; the more the merrier. Be it beans, spinach or yam and potatoes I love most of them. I think every vegetable needs to be cooked a certain way – like chow chow(chayote) kootu rocks, but a chow chow poriyal is rubbish. My favourite vegetables are okra, bitter gourd, beetroot, and most greens vegetables.
4 – Biryani! Come on, who doesn’t love a good biryani. I love a good chicken biryani. Both my parents are from the Kannur-Telicherry belt. And famous there is the thalassery biryani. But I think it is rice and some gravy; not biryani. Here is Chennai you get a lot of different types of it. The proper Tamil style is awesome, and the dum biryani is a world-class dish. Then there is the Mughlai style of it, which is drool-worthy. And the Hyderabad biryani is a spicy variant and it takes an iron stomach to deal with one. Then there is the recipe that varies from home to home. My mom does make a great biryani, it is her own version of the food, but there is nothing to complain about. The biryani is a celebratory food, and one must have a celebration every now and then.
5 – Jackfruit. That one oblong thing serves up so much variety. I know some people whose noses are personally offended by the smell, but I do not care. Ripe, raw, or anywhere in between, the jackfruit can be dished up in many ways. My grandmother knows what I think are a zillion recipes with them. I just binge on them.
6 – Chicken. This is a protein that can be made a thousand ways. However, not everyone makes a good chicken dish. Sometimes they tend to overcook it and it really becomes chewy & rubbery. There are very few restaurants and people who get it right. Between my mom, my sister and me, I make it best. Chicken needs to soft, tender and juicy when cooked; if not there is no justice done to it.
7 – Rajma & Peas. These two can just be cooked and served to me, and I would eat them. Plain or in a curry or a sundal or a salad, I like them in all their avatars. But not mushed! I still got my teeth to chew, so that is a no-no!
8 – Chinese Food! This food is primarily take away. Thanks to Swiggy or eating out, Chinese food is always a favourite. I know there will always be people who go on about additives or health issues and all, but what is life without a little risk! I am not the sort of person who would dive off a cliff with a rope around my feet, so this is the manner of risk-taking I enjoy. I also like Thai food.
I do not have any Chinese food photos, so you get this one – Thai raw mango salad and grilled chicken.
9 – Eggs. I cannot live without them. Scrambled, fried, sunny side up, poached… and then the curries that can be made… such a humble thing, yet so much variety!
Today’s prompt – three personality traits I am proud of.
First off punctuality! I have this insane need to be on time. I think it started because it was drilled into our personalities at school. If I need to be at a place at 11am, I am there five minutes before. Moreover, I do not like people who tend to be late. I find excuses like traffic to be very juvenile and instantly judge people when they are late.
Secondly, I am proud of being an ambivert. It is the best of both worlds. If I do not want to interact, I can bring out the introverted side of mine and get away with it. And when I really need to network, I turn on the charm. The adaptability of this trait is very handy.
And finally… I am someone who over thinks things. I dissect and trisect, I make lists of pros and cons. I make a nuisance of things in my mind. I turn cynical and sceptic. But, this also means, I am ready to face a situation. If I have already been in such a situation, then I may apply my learning from that time as well. The stress or the tensions I can deal with. The emotions, maybe not. My friends can attest that I do not lend a shoulder for my friends to cry on. I ask them who or what put them there and roll up my sleeves and deal with it. The stress and difficulty is something I can deal with, emotions I let them be.
Do you know what a guilty pleasure is? Something that you love doing. However, for sure, you will be embarrassed by, if it were known to others that you loved it. Now, because we have a prompt that says I must write about it, I am sharing one of my guilty pleasures with you. Just one!
There was a time in my life when my reading was very varied. The library was where I had access to Stephen King, Robin Cook, PG Wodehouse, Agatha Christie along with Readers Digest, Business World, The Economist, Granta and the likes. At home, since my father worked in advertising, we always had plenty of magazines and newspapers. The Hindu and The Economic Times, Competition Success and Architectural Digest, Femina and Cosmopolitan were a few that were readily available. So blissful was I in these genres that I did not realise I was missing out something until I was in my mid-twenties.
It took an overseas trip with colleagues, cooped up together for long hours, for me to realise it. I always used to wonder about the books with a certain kind of cover in the romance sections. Do not think I did not read romance until then. There were Jane Austen, Bronte, Nicholas Sparks and all. However, those books did not have nymph-like creatures or chiselled abs on their covers. They were also not in states of undress. Curiosity wins always and I did check out a few such books, somehow every blurb was similar. Damsel in distress, hero to the rescue. Injured hero, damsel saves him. They fall in love. Over and over and over again. The same thing. I did not pick it up
Going back to the flight. My friend brought along some reading material and it was one of those books I wondered about. Almost! This cover had an even more scandalously dressed couple and I am sure my eyes popped out my head when she showed me the book. Ah! Sometimes, I wonder at how innocent and naive I was.
After the trip back home, she gave me one of her books to read over a weekend. With strict instructions to read it from cover to cover, and not add it to my DNF pile. The book was a Mills and Boon novel. I do not remember the title or the plot. The plot can, of course, be imagined. So, I read the book. First time I began, I fell asleep four pages in. Then I persevered and finished it. Monday, I went to work and I thought I gave a nice big smile. (And then she told me to stop blushing and act like a big girl that I was now! In case I haven’t shared before, at work, amongst friends, I was called Tweety because I was the young one.) Now, I can confidently say smut is a guilty pleasure of mine.
I don’t care what brain boosting, intellect intensifying books I read, these romance novels are something I always return to. Is there romance in real life – I do not know. Nevertheless, these books provide me with enough of it to last a lifetime. My favourite authors from this genre are Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, Jude Devereux, Judith McNaught, Maya Banks, Penny Reid, Cathy Maxwell, Emma Chase, Loretta Chase, Lorraine Heath, Sabrina Jeffries, Sarah Maclean and Tessa Dare. Well, these are a few of the authors I read. I am sure I can find plenty more names in this genre, authors whose books have made me feel like a warm choco-lava cake on the inside. Many thanks to them!
Maybe, I will blog about a few of my favourite romances in February. Make the month all about love. 🙂
Today’s prompt is to write about my earliest childhood memory.
Let’s talk about my childhood. I had a wonderful childhood. In comparison, adulthood sucks. My parents, my mom’s brother and I used to live in a big place. It was on the first floor and the huge window and the verandah on the front were ‘the place’ to look out on to the world. I could be seen hanging on to the window grill like a baby monkey, watching. Then there were also my grandparents who would visit. My maternal and paternal grandparents would be around at least once a year. And my journey as a student began long before I even started school, thanks to all of them.
I used to sit on my daddy’s lap and read the paper, even if I could make out only shapes and look at pictures. Since I was being more of a nuisance than a help, he would give me picture books while he read the papers, peacefully. They then began giving me rhymes books or comics. I once had a gargantuan collection of Tinkles. I do not think I can ever overcome the fact that my mother gave it all away! I still seethe over it.
This is actually my earliest childhood memory. Of seeing my father sitting cross-legged on the floor, newspapers laid out flat in front of him, reading it while drinking his coffee. Enough of a signal for baby me to go and sit on the papers. He would then place me on his lap while he read. Once the coffee was finished, he would hold out the papers in his hands. Of course, this was also a fun game. I would just go ahead punch and kick the papers. Finally, I have no clue who came with the idea, I was given picture books or books with pictures, aka magazines, to sit beside him and read. My mom also figured that since I would sit still while ‘reading’, she would often give me a colourful magazine while she worked in the kitchen. To this day, my mom says, that if I have a book in hand and I am silent, then all is well. If I am generally silent then some mischievous hell is about to break loose.
Oh, and you know when I wrote about punching the paper while my father read it… I still do it now. If I see him holding out the newspaper, the boxer in me comes alive. If I see him reading the paper laid out in front of him, on the bed/the dining table/ or the floor, I dive and lay flat on it. I am still a nuisance. But sometimes my dad gets the better of me. He ends up reading the papers before I wake up. So much of sneaky planning! (And don’t think daddy is the only one whom I pester. Mummy bears the lion’s share of it.)
Head on to Instagram(personal) to check out a photo of me moving forward with a goal in mind.
Frost At Midnite 