Autumn

Nov/ Dec, not Oct as it says at the beginning of the post.

I love autumn. It gets my vote for Best Season of the Year. Especially since there is no autumn in India, for me, it inspires a child-like awe. Everyday, on my way to university with A, the gorgeous autumn colours all around and the constant rustle of falling leaves makes me want to capture it all in a painting. Not that I can do it. And not that people haven't done it wonderfully already. I want to describe it all in words here, but all I can come up with is 'visual poetry'.

There is this one particular tree that I am in love with. It's not very tall, so that it branches out at just the right height for me to appreciate. Its leaves are a gorgeous red-yellow, slightly shrivelled, making it look like a small brown light stand with baubles. You think I'm getting carried away? Well, I would have justified my fawning, if only I'd clicked it in time. As with many other tasks that I procrastinate, it's a wee bit too late now - the little leaves are gone, leaving the tree looking like so many others around it - a sad, cold, naked frame, wishing for spring again. What are we taught in childhood Moral Science classes?In Kabir's words "Kal kare so aaj kar.....". Oh well.

To comfort myself about my flawed existence, I baked a nice banana loaf with A on a lazy, rainy (hello, this is England!) Sunday afternoon. Now, he says he has what is called in Malayalam as 'kaya punyam' ('haath gun' in Marathi, the Midas touch for cooking). Whether it was his hand or the chef's (aka Me) skill, the loaf turned out comforting and more! Hot tea and some banana -walnut loaf. Aaah, bliss. Celebrate autumn :D ! This one I clicked.(..am I a fast learner or what ;)). Come share it.


Of course, I am late in completing this long-back begun entry as well, so that it is winter when I write. Which translates as cold winds and ...yes, more rain. Give me back my blue skies!! And, await my next entry while you're at it.

Ganpati Bappa .. More-ya!

Tomorrow is Anant Chaturdashi. I have never particularly liked this day. It brings with it the sadness of farewell. The pain of parting. Made slightly bearable by lovely fried 'modaks' and 'vatleli daal'. Say goodbye to the benign Elephant God - Ganesha. Your guest for a celebrative, often colourful, certainly musical 10 days of modaks, pedhas, karanjis and endless hogging. (Don't we Indians need just the slightest religious excuse to gorge on delicious, oily food?)

For us, it probably began with my father who brought Ganpati home as a child for the first time. Of course, the religious rites and puja was being done for generations, but the festive version was my father's doing. In typical childish stubbornness, he decided that his house should have the same decorative 'murti' as the nearby 'mandal' - why should he miss out? And since then, Ganesh Chaturthi has been a big occasion in our household, eagerly anticipated and thoroughly celebrated. It even got the competitive zeal of the mandals (the most creatively decorated mandal gets prizes) into our house - to this day, my brother and I slave over the decorations around the Ganesh murti to get more compliments that each other. Picking out the idol is accorded the utmost importance. We mull endlessly over the hand of this murti and the trunk of that, the seat of one and the eyes of the other (the stall owner knows us very well, no doubt as the Finicky Four). Then there is the puja itself - with all the kids giggling behind my father's back over the strange sounding mantras.

This year, though, things were slightly different. It was upon me (and by extension, A) to recreate that ambiance in faraway UK (where in some places it is difficult to know when Christmas comes and goes). Obstacles - no good sized idol, no puja- cassette to guide, no Aai to cook endless batches of modaks for us to devour. Don't ask me how, but we overcame all that. And talk about how God helps you - we made a small murti at home with moudable clay, and it actually turned out good!!! Not to take credit away from A, but me, the One with the Cursed Fingers, I actually made parts of the murti! What else but a miracle!! (Aai and the others can stop nodding their heads now).

So we did have a murti, as it turns out, A and I read the Sanskrit puja out of a book, did the necessary rites, made the modaks - which I can proudly say turned out well, and I gloat not - and hogged, as is custom. Aaaaah, festive food! Thus was welcomed the Mangalmurti into our house!

And now, it's already time for Him to go back to His mother (my mother used to console me saying he was going back to his mother would be back from there next year - he also missed his mother na? somehow that made him more human, and more loveable). The decorated corner is going to be so empty, all of a sudden. Evenings will seem so aimless without the long 'aarti'.

But fear not! There is another festivity around the corner! Diwali will soon be here. Too bad I can't show off my bravery with firecrackers here - health and safety, you know!

Up, Up and Awaayyyyyyyy..........

I'm trying to get my head around the Blogger changes........ Started out with the older version (yes, it's been that long since I last posted something ;) ) and all that code. I was just about to announce my victory over the html code with a new header picture, when I realised I was just cutting my nose to spite my face. So I am all aboard the new blogger beta version and ready to make my life a teeny bit easier.

People are so innovative with their blogs - the presentation and the content - I feel like my poor little blog doesn't belong! But I am going to take toddler steps and change that. Await the improved look of this blog,ye readers!

Have been doing a lot of movie / TV show - watching lately (no thanks to my sci-fi / animation obsessed husband, AS). And though I am not a total convert to that genre of cinema/ television yet (gooey stuff, my sister calls it) , I must confess I quite enjoy it. So in come the Doctor Whos, Supernaturals, Pirates, Spidermans, Smallvilles, etc. AS has to pay dearly for this new liking though, because it implies a barrage of questions from me during the show/ movie. So we sat through the whole of Pirates with my endless - Who is this? Does she love him? Will he die? Why didnt they release Calypso? Who is Calypso?? Of course, my favourite question to him at any given time is - What will happen now?!? Like he knows every single story ever written/ filmed. But somehow, just because he watches them with such interest, I expect him to know. Add to that my plight of not understanding all the time-travelling and the sudden appearances of humans and aliens from the past and the future. (Add to the inexplicable urge to needle someone who is so completely involved in something :D)

I have always loved all stories with magic in them - right from the Grimm brothers' fairy tales and Vikram- Vetal to Harry Potter and Ghost Whisperer. Some might claim that stuff like Charmed is for girls - and why not, with a demon who looks like Cole - but I beg to differ. Those 3 witches might not be Charlie's Angels, but they sure can 'kick some demon ass'. Anyhoo, producers somehow seem to get yummy actors to play these superhero- type/ principal characters - L can sit through all of Smallville only for its Clark Kent, and another friend would not mind if all the characters in Pirates 3 were played by Johnny Depp. As for me, the only thing I can recall about Supernatural is one of the investigators - the elder of two brothers. Mmmmmm......

Of course, there's more to the shows/ movies than merely pretty faces. Some have superbly imaginative stories. I am currently loading up on Doctor Who. For anyone who liked Star Trek, this one is a surefire winner - if you haven't read the Doctor Who books already. I didn't quite understand the hoolabuloo around it esp here in the UK, but even the series is like a racy book you can't quite put down. And I've grown to love the Doctor (AS had a hard time convincing me not to hate David Tennant, the current Doctor, just for taking over from Christopher Eccleston, the actor who previously played Doctor Who. Now I love Tennant as the Doctor :D).

So, sweeties, go watch some Doctor Who. Once you get hooked, you won't blame your mother for going back to her Saas-Bahu night after night. And guys, you might want to think twice about initiating your girlfriend/ wife into the World Beyond - you might find her drooling over your Clark Kent instead of dreaming of you.