Udta Hi Firun In Hawaon Me Kahin

He He ... the post is neither about the song, nor about the movie, I'm sure there are enough and more bytes lavished on the two. This post is about ... air travel and the funny experiences thereof! Should be fun.

J and I were talking and started discussing the funny and interesting air travel experiences we've had ... she has had many more fun ones! No fair!! Considering that in the job profile I had for the last 3 years, I took no less than 300-350 flights over that period ... what do I have to show for it?

# Stories of me getting stuck with all uncles who want to offer me their raitas and salads when I refuse the stewardess for dinner/lunch?

# Worse still the aunties, who want to know which college I'm in and then they proceed to poke and prod and are finally informed about the going-ons in my life, like ... working?Haaan?!So young. Or, married? Haaan??!!Very good!(plz to note the very good)So young. Lolll.

# Celebrity spottings, most of which excite only the relative's kids who like asking you questions like ... have you seen so and so?I recite the list, the politicians evoke no interest mostly, the rest get - and what was he/she doing/wearing? Wowwwww ... (Grrrrr) Most of them evoked no excitement for me, except of course the time when I saw Javed Jafri, who I think is a dude and I love even more due to his Takeshi's Castle commentary achievements. Now, that impresses me much!:)

(One tiny detour to share one observation, on recent relative visits while the girls tend to stick to the celebrity spotting questions, and the boys have upgraded to car spotting questions! Me being the car enthusiast, is mighty pleased with the boyees progress and la-haul-vila-kuwat much disappointed in the girleez!!)

Ok, moving on to the real interesting ones (most of them are from J's recent trip home)...

• This one time J and mom are travelling from Jaipur to somewhere and on their flight is this old, Rajasthani gentleman who is on his first ever flight. He is just soooo excited! So this person, he's wearing the traditional white kurta pajama and a large colorful turban and his kurta is sprinkled with some pink color. Mum explains saying ... he must be the first one from his village to undertake air travel so there must have been some kind of pooja/celebration! :) And he is looking damn cute sitting there all excited in his bright turban! Food is served and he carefully observes the people around him and goes on to do exactly as they are doing. Some irritating air hostesses are scowling at him because he doesn't know what to do ... get a life women ... as if you were born on an aircraft, wearing your high heels! Ok, so the flight lands and at arrivals, our enthu turbaned old man is very surprised and happy to see the conveyor belt and is not sure what it does ... so he decides to do a lil experiment. He has this potli with him, he looks at the moving belt for a while, then places his potli on it and proceeds to watch what happens. When the potli completes the round and comes back to him ... he breaks into a smile and claps with joy!! :) And its reallly awww cute to see his excitement because you don't see that kind of innocent excitement too often these days ... lesser still in grown ups as most people, including kids, feel they should act cool! But what joy ... being able to experience something for the first time and being able to express it too! :)
• Another funny one ... J is on some flight from somewhere to somewhere and this person starts to yell,"Madam!Madam!Help me!!Help me!!!!" So J is convinced that he's either having a heart attack or has found a bomb on the flight and that she's going to get delayed in reaching wherever it is that she's going. There is sudden interest from all around and the air hostess runs to him to see whats it about and the yelling man says, still yelling,"Madam!He's not moving from my seat!Do something!" Lollll ... the madam helps the yelling man and the yelling subsides, its all good. I can just picture J, sitting there shaking with laughter.

Ok, there are more but now my time has been claimed by that little pestering thing called work. I'll continue on in part 2 ...

P.S. Madam!Madam!Sir,sir!! Can you please help with this spaces not showing problem?!

P.P.S: I solved the spaces problem but don't want to remove the P.S. :D

Pasta Wasta

Being someone who is such a food lover ... I can't not gloat over this awesome pasta I made for myself a few weeks ago.

Ladies and Gentlemen, hold your collective breath, what you see above is my world famous (Hello ... my world at least!) Vodka-cream-tomato-basil pasta!I'm a pasta lover and let me tell you ... that was SOME good pasta. Also not visible in the picture is a tall thin frosted chute with some bubbly in it. Should have got it in the picture in hindsight ... not to worry,I'm sure there will be a next time. Em, the bubbly being Appy Fizz ... but how does that matter! If it doesn't look right how will it ever taste right!!

Obviously I saw the recipe somewhere and tried it, I will give, if you ask nicely :)

I may also cook it for you ... if you ... ASK NICELY (read: know enough adjectives to please me) :) :)

Of Food and Crtiques

Aaaah ... what a way to start the weekend. What a way to end the week!

Sn - this really great woman at work, who is now my really good friend and I, we raced out of office to catch a show of RataTouille. We reached town and as we walked to Sterling to buy the tickets, this young boy of about 8-9 or may be 10-12, I could never tell the age for kids, ya ... so this kid started walking with us and asked for some food. So Sn fished out a bread slice wrapped in foil from her bag and gave it to the boy. The boy, he took a bite, unfolded the folded slice and showed it to us to say there's nothing in/with it. So while Sn is on phone she says she has some salad in her bag and digs out a mayo salad for the boy. Since she's on phone I try to give the boy the salad and since its difficult to fold salad in a slice he's already nibbled at, I ask him to lay out the slice on the salad box's lid. He does as asked and I spread a generous helping of Sn's tasty looking salad on the slice. And now, its all loaded so I'm wondering how will he pick it up, so with Sn still on phone I tell the boy - why don't you eat it off the lid and we'll wait. So there ... he takes a bite ... and just as I'm about to feel the warm glow ... 'just about' I said. The boy goes ... its not nice. Sn and I ask ... what? and he says, "ITS NOT NICE" and even puckers his face to demonstrate the same!! So now he's standing there with Sn's slice and Sn's salad and Sn's box's lid ... not wanting it!How cool is that?! We are dazed for a second and then proceed to get the crazy laugh as he throws it all away to return the lid. He returns it and goes back to asking for Dal-rice; even waves with some style as we walk past after buying the tickets. We? We are still laughing, I more than Sn since I didn't make that salad! I'm just dying because I can't laugh anymore. We are giving him food doesn't mean he has to like our food!

Chef Gusteau would say,"Anyone can cook." I would say, anyone can critique even!! :)

P.S: There's more ... but my eyes are a little tired as I type in the darnkess and shakiness of my car. So more later ...

P.P.S: She's Sn and not S, because S is S.

P.P.P.S: For some weird reason blogger is not showing any of the spaces between the lines!!Why whyyyyy?!

Boond Boond Tapak Rahi Hai Kaynaat Saari ...

Poetic as it may sound in Hindi, it would translate roughly as 'the cosmos is dripping away in tiny droplets'. But today its no tiny droplets, its more like a sheet of water pouring down. And as always, rain does one of the two things to me - it either makes me all excited and happy OR it makes me melancholy and thoughtful. Today is a strange mix of the two. So here's the jumble of thoughts in my head ...

• I started by thinking about the time when I really used to love rains. This one time we were at college and it started raining heavily, B and I were so excited, we just wanted to get soaked.We decided to go to B's place instead of mine, the decision was easy as her place was about 7 Kms. while mine a mere 1-1.5 km. So we stepped out and looked for a rickshaw ... aah, not an auto rickshaw, THE rickshaw which is pulled by the rickshaw guy. So we climbed and started for her place, the rickshaw guy tried to put up those tiny umbrella-like shades they have and we were like ... NO!! We don't want it. And there we went ... a good half an hour (or more?) of a rickshaw ride - singing and talking and laughing in the rain. Some vehicles passing us by looked at us as if we had grown goblin heads or something, and some ... they looked at us and just smiled or even laughed and waved at us. I'm sure they were all wondering why they couldn't do that :) But it was on hell of a ride ... at the end of it i had this feeling, its one i don't get too often, the feeling that I have been soaked to the soul. I like that feeling, its something else :)
• And talking about rain, i have to talk about this one time when I was visiting S and he had some work at Marine Drive and i tagged along ... later we were walking by and we could see that it was raining at Malabar hills and then it started moving towards us, so we were like ... there it comes! And it slowly moved over the ocean and in some time it was drenching us! I remember feeling exhilarated :)
• My favorite rain song (song featuring something about rain) is 'choti si kahani se, baarishon ke paani se'. And have you ever noticed that music affects you much more when its raining?
• Sigh ... I still love them when I am out of this city. The things I love about it? The smell after the first rain (there's a word for it 'saundhi', i like the word as it has the right amount of earthiness to describe this smell), the fresh green leaves,overcast skies, sitting in a window watching it pitterpat, water running down the windows of my home or the car, the way lights look through that water running on the window, the usual coffee and pakodas which are just the thing with a good book for such a day and yes ... the long drives at night on washed roads lined with trees which shine with the yellow street lights. I love the way it gets me excited and i love the way it gets me all thoughtful. But the drive on rain-slick roads with the music of my choice ... that's my fav. I'm a romantic! Never claimed otherwise:)
• I used to be outraged when S would say over our infinite long-distance calls ... it sucks, its been raining; and i would go ... What!! You don't like rains?!! And then I moved here and realised that rains ALSO mean mucky roads, muckier sidewalks (where they exist), endless jams, local train compartments with closed doors AND an impossible number of sweaty people inside, flooding, walking through mucky water. Muck just features too often and too much.
• It makes me feel guilty. Sitting all snug and seeing people ... children, old people, just people ... standing with the depressed look on their faces, trying to stay out of the rain. I just feel like i don't know what have i done to deserve better. I don't see it.

I feel like that and still ... it starts to rain and there, I'm back to the excited/thoughtful/both place! It just highlights and amplifies every mood and emotion; I think that's its magic, no denying that :)

P.S. This is a really long post! [I've reduced the font size to make it look smaller than it is :)]