A sat afternoon at home.......

I remember mentioning in a post, that it was only v recently that I knew my mother was a v avid reader. Yea the hours she consumed daily reading newspapers and Malayalam magazines should have given me a hint!  I guess moving to hyd a few decades ago where Malayalam novels arent easy to find made her quit the habit and never look back at it.

It so transpired, that the other day I was at a book store close to office accompanied by Sabs. This bookstore("DC Books" if u want to know) stocks a enviable collection of Malayalam books too. So on a whim, I decided to pick a new novels for mum. With sabs in tow, I was rest assured to make the correct choices! The books we ended up picking(v skeptically I should add - cause I hv no clue what genre my mom Will love) were these:

From L-R Book 1 is a take on Mahabharata from Karna's view(v similar to "palace of Illusions" am guessing), Book 2 - the acclaimed "My Story" by Kamala Das (simply cause her ancestral home was literally a stones throw away from my mothers place n so there was a general associated curiosity), Book3- translation of "Unaccustomed Earth"!

As expected, she pooh-poohed it declaring that she should be reading "Spiritual books" now n not some jumbo-mumbo fiction! But dint I know her betta...... The v next day as soon as all of us stepped out of the house she curled up with her copy of "My Story" and dint budge until she read the last page (:-P)!

Err the only side-effect of it was that we had to take along some take-away for her lunch as was too engrossed in the book to bother to cook(!!!)

'Bombay Toast' And Other Tales....

The tasty,filling,delicious yet easy-as-a-jiffy sunday morning breakfast... Jus puurfect for a cosy, cuddly Sunday morning :-D


More Food Porn For u! Pic courtesy Hubbs....

 
If u want to know, this is french toast with a twist! French toast minus the sweetening agents n of course topped with cheese strips - supposedly called "Bombay Toast" in these parts!
 
Now onto some other interesting news, my mom is decided to become a egg-iterian n a Fish-iterian after a long gap of 13 years! For once am happy that she decided to heed the docs advise...  Our incessant breathing down the neck jus kicked out the last iota of doubt she had :-D. Indeed its time for a "Pat On The Back"!

Linking this to Color Deckors weekend wrapup and ABC Wednesday(B is for Bombat Toast :-P)

A tall Story...

Literally! Go, look up this link to know what am saying...

http://www.punemirror.in/article/62/2012062820120628153417190890402a3/A-tall-story.html

You guys rock!!!

I am going all-empathetic with  them.Cause thou am no-where near their 6'+,  Right from my kinder-garden days I was the tallest girl around ~~ so much so that when me was a little more than 10, I could give any girl-boy of my age a run for their money what with me towering above them at a good 5'7'' :-D. (Reason for quite a bit of heartburn for my mom... no prizes for guessing why)!

Thou today am proud to be the tallest lady in at least my circle, it was reason enuf to cause more than fair share of despondency especially during those not-sure-about-myself awkward teen-age!

Lifes Surprises!

I had always thot that I inherited the love of reading from my dad, seeing him devour books as we grew up! Possibly am right, but things over last few weeks makes me wonder ~~ is it jus from my dad that I inherited this love for books???

Today my mom~~ who is ridden off quite a few of her responsibilities(read marrying off her daughters) in life has at-last some 'Me Time'. N surprise, surprise!! She seems to be devouring books(Thou they all are these spiritual books!) at a pace that surprises me. Her excitement when she lays her hands on the latest edition of her fav book is as palpable as a 7 year old when he gets hold of his fav comics book....

N not jus books, she is suddenly this kool-mom who seems to be enjoy looking up cook-books and now has her definite list of 'To-see' programs in TV. Now if you are somebody who knows my mom, you will know that she was somebody who believed in cooking-for-survival(at least once we grew up!) and who thot that TVs are meant for jobless people in the world!!!!!!!


Life can still surprise you huh!

The Summer story!

The two weeks we were in hyd last month seemed almost a nightmare what with the increasing mercury levels and no AC to beat the bloody heat!

Rewind to a few year, na makes it a good 2 decades(man! am getting old) ~~ AC was a unimaginable luxury ~~Even the monstrous water cooler we had was a prized possession then! But but summers is where the best memories of my childhood are ~~ The long summer vacation spent at Kerala was jus the topping on the cake!

The house we were living in hyd then ~~ A "Match-Box" size apartment it was but the one luxury we had was bigger-than-the-bedroom open-air balcony n a huge terrace almost to ourselves. By late afternoons thou the balcony would be as good as live-burning-coals! Remember this was summers which meant water shortage which would mean lugging buckets of water to our first floor house(elevators at homes werent really heard of then!) ~~ Despite that  come evening, the entire balcony is doused with buckets of water . The pleasure of sitting down in the balcony post this "water treatment" and catching up over evening tea as the cold evening air caress our faces ~~ Luxury! I hv quite a few memories of last minute cramming up for my exam siting right on that balcony.....

As night creeps in, there would be more-often-than-not a tussle for the prized-position under the water cooler. So one fine evening it was decided to ditch the cooler and mats were laid down back-back on the balcony with a few pillows popped in! Now imagine, A groups of cousin lying down next to each other, looking up to a sky full of stars n telling stories of far far away places...............

Indeed Old is gold!

Linking this to ABC Wednesday (O is for "Old is Gold")

While I do not have any pics of hyd to share what I could instead show you is a old pic of hubbs from his childhood days(the child on extreme left).. doesnt he look like a sweetheart here or is it a biased wife speaking :)

Diwali 2011....

Having exhausted all the 'Lighting up' decor ideas last year, me decided to zero on a 'Flower-Diya' rangoli this time... Easy on time n eyes as well esp with ma sis visiting! I could easily outsource the design picking n color co-ordination to her and with the hubbs around, I know there are some fab pics guaranteed :).At times, I believe, that the pics look much betta than the actual subjects.. This is a perfect point in case ... lol!




 The diya tht you See in the middle is the latest addition  to our diya collection. You can see a closeup of the diya here.

Speaking of Diwali, what should not be missed to add, is the way my mom never ever loses a chance to driver point home! It so happened that while we were out to burst the crackers, we were joined by the kids from neighborhood which  jus added more life to the celebrations! My mom but had to think aloud(loud enuf for me n hubbs to hear!) n exclaim "Dont kids always bring more joy n happiness to our lives" n this was repeated so many times that am sure half the people out there got the msg tooo (rolling ma eyes in resignation).

Linking it to ColorDeckors Weekly Story

Onam Visheshangal - 2011!

While the visheshams can wait, heres a quick glance of the Onam pookalam ...

Liked it? Much betta than all the amateurish attempts till last year... The credit goes well not to me but ma sis... nobody like ur sibling to buck you up and take the task to completion!

No Onam is complete without the Sadhya ... Heres something for you to slurp on :-P! Credit to ma amma ofcourse....

Linking this upto Colordeckors ~~ Story of the week! 

You know ur mom is visiting when.....

When u r greeted early in morn with... no, not with morn tea or even the damn paper... but with  a ounce of kashaayam tht refuses to go down ur throat...

When all ur medicines (n bottles of them) that were tucked away to oblivion, are all dusted, lined up and then horrors of horrors.... Its stuck rt under ur nose until u oblige n swallow it up(saves hrs of nagging u c)

When ur undies which until then was strewn all around the place (n every morn there is a big hunting expedition to esp pair up the socks) is found neatly packed into separate bags - one for me n other for hubbs(the expression on hubbs face as he opened the drawer was worth a sight)

When U hv somebody who runs off every 15 mins to shoo off the pigeons who hv made ma balcony their home(the mess they make!)

When the food is xtra spicy cause her son-in-law likes it tht way!

:-). Yea yea u got tht rt ma mom - sis is visiting me for a good 1.5 months.... Yippppeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

N ofcourse with the sis visiting comes along god-worshipping her 'jeeju' (it can drive me up the wall!), with insolent requests to hug her to sleep(:-D), to bugging u till u shut the dam lappie down, to ofcourse being indulged with lotta new dresses - yum yum goodies to treat on :-D