Been blog lazy, or blog averse or both

First because the weekend was a loungy sleepy affair with lingering meals, cake smell in the air, puppy sir eating all inedible things, the anticipation of a visa, meeting old uncles and discovering the joys of 5 people sitting around a kitchen wondering how anything was getting cooked at all.

Community Cooking in any form is such a joy, with banter and conversation and everyone running amok when the onions are getting chopped. Meals made like that are almost not eaten because the cooking somehow fills your tummy, but there is so much deeper a connect to the food when you make it than when it has just appeared from somewhere…

When we were in the ashram, the rules of eating were simple.

Step one.- sit on the floor with everyone and wait to be served. No matter how starved you are, one was not to eat till every person had been served each dish that had been prepared.

This meant, that after getting up at 5 am, then the bhanjans, yoga, and all that when you were dying to gobble up anything in sight, you sat there and saw the food. 

EVEN THEN you could not eat! A old women would materialize and the hall would vibrate with chants of 

Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare hare.,..

Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare hare.,..

Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare hare.,..

Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare hare.,..

Chanting over, in pure silence the room would slowly commence the task of eating. The silent understanding being that each person had to chew the food atleast 50 times before swallowing. One of my best friends at the ashram was very particular about it too

Silently, she would put in a teeny bit of food. Sit straight away from the plate.

Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew, chew. Chew, chew, chew. Chew, chew,. Chew, chew, chew, chew, chew. Chew,…. And again chew. Chew, chew, chew. Chew,,, before swallowing.

After a few days, I made sure that I did not look at her till I had atleast gobbled half the food on my plate; because if I had, I would also have commenced chewing and becoming aware of the food, thinking of the potato, the farmer, the soil, mother earth, the water, evaporation, meditation, ideation and forgotten about eating the next bite.. So focused eating was my mantra.

But jokes aside, eating slowly and consciously makes so much difference to the manner of eating, You taste and smell. You chew and savour. A small plate of food lasts much longer and fills you faster.

Of course I ate two crackers while writing this post, none of them in the manner listed above. All said and done there is a lot that the food you eat says about you, the manner you eat in about how you grew up and there is something delightfully heart warming watching someone relish the food that they are eating,

To food the one thing we all cant do without

surprise

When is the last time that you planned a surprise for someone? Did something that they did not expect and watched with immense amusement as their faces lit up and eyes shined as they could not believe that this was actually happening...

On a spur, a casual conversation with a friend triggered off an idea and the weekend plan was set. Was dragging M to a surprise trip to a resort, a bachelors party that he thought he was not going to make it for and then a round on the super cool dirt track where the bikes permitted men to be boys

The joy of planning and seeing the boy eyes was worth it all.. ;-) ;-)

closed the weekend with a short dash to the art of living ashram. Being a sunday it was a Satsang day and Guruji's presence ensured the crowds where there in humengous numbers. As we walked through the enormity of devotion and worship that was in the air hit us. 

it made me question a few things. What does it take for a man to worship another man? when does respect end and following begin. I love the Kriya and truly believe that the AOL movement is doing wonders, i also believe that Guuji is a wise knowing soul, but call it ego or discretion something prevents me from bowing down and surrendering completely

yet i know, that when u find someone u think is ur guru. this reluctance dissolves in no time...... to getting that simple knowing sometime. ;-)

imagine that

Hmm there are the good surprises and the not so good surprises. Had a mixture of both taking place today.

Good surprises were:

• my company may get to make a presentation at a world bank summit super soon!! and that means that africa may be closer than i think it is
• got an article on the Manza literally sitting on the table, where it was rated higher than the linea, the desire, and the verna
• the relationship with some of the freelancers got a notch better and am happy for the same
• managed to get a lot of paper work done, make pending payments, and not be pissed at the world
• Ran!! without my knee going ooohh eeeewww aaaaah and such obnoxious noises

Really bad news came in as well

• opened the paper to see that probably one of the maddest, wildest most vivacious man that i interacted with once in a while in Bangalore, died while rock climbing in Thailand. it made no sense, his death or the sudden ness of it. For each of us who at 30 are so very cocky that we are here for a long long long time and end up procrastinating so many of our life choices it comes as a rude reminder that life is fragile. Know i sound disgustingly like the next door Blonde Barbie Doll, but it is true, life is fragile and despite that somehow does not come with a "handle with care" sticker
•  Was sans electricity for the ENTIRE day. That was so annoying and painful that every resident voice got shriller as the sun rose higher. It was only later in the night, that we got to know that a labourer got electrocuted while digging the trenches for wire repair. 

One life shall be celebrated, a funeral touching for the number of memories associated with it shared and grief that is palpable be felt. The other shall be a funeral too, smaller, shorter, maybe as much grieved but have a presumption (can be misplaced as hell) that the overall feeling shall be one of mute acceptance and moving on. shrinks, medicines and grief counsellors shall not be the route the second mans family gets. 

hmmm what a way to end the day. 

ashamed to state that all i did think of was.. uff but when does the power come back. 

Cynicism you have a new name 

Purrrrrrfect

I am going to call this the perfect day, valentine being irrelevant to the larger scheme of things. It is ending with me nibbling on a blue berry cheese cake, curling into a bean bag, with the just released book from my favourite author of all time, and have 6 more books to munch on.

Woke up to SMS and her yawny smiles at a lovely 9.30, mush music on MTV, watermelon juice, hot showers, breakfast in bed and a mid morning date with the Khan, Karan and Kajol combination. There shall be several other blogs, praising or blaming them for the movie that they made. But for me it was a tale that was simple and reasonably told. Was not weeping, and am a weeper, so guess could have been made warmer. but it was a movie that did not begin with a K, had no elaborate sets, punjabi doses, preachy emotional sit down and talk heart to hearts, lots of everyday moments to tell a tale, rather than preachy speeches, and did a much better job than New York!! the John Abharhim movie.

But with due aplogies to NK, the Times of India movie critic, what is was not is a patch on Forest Gump.. not even close. But SRK manages to do alternate things with his face, that make u go awww..and Kajol is mesmerizing, with and without eye makeup. Her exuberance does u in.

Saw Valentine Day, as well the night before. Total Chic-let, that i still manage to smile at.. so seeing Julia Roberts in a short role with her smile made it come true. heehe sound like a lesbian here now dont i?

Then came the favourite part of the day, went book shopping, bought 7 new books. and the to die for book that i am reading right now. shall blog extracts from it tomm, when i have had the luxury of sinking into it a bit more, browsed, smelled and bought lots of new authors, love books.. began reading there only. what a good trade for the gmat books me says

followed by a lazy lunch at 5, vodka thrown in, a almond mocha cake, drive home

and the prettiest white chrysanthamus, with the delicate blue ting at the end of the petals. so sublte n pretty, coffee, snuggling in with the book, conversations and reading aloud to male monica, while we attempt to roll out dosas.... that is what the day was.

the best part ... all this was spontaneous, unplanned and just happened. to some connections and days being that.

Puuurrrfect ;-)