Julie & Julia- Yesterday & today

Julie & Julia! Although a recent film but such a classic!! Mazaaaa hi aa gaya..dil khush ho gaya!  A very dear friend told me almost 2 years ago that I must see this film because he thought it had all the ingredients that I love. After watching it last night, I agree. It is a movie about two women (one of them played by my favorite Meryl Streep), France and cooking. to top it all it is based on true stories.

Julie and Julia are these two quintessentially modern women of their times looking for an outlet to explore themselves better. Of course, in layman terms, they were looking for something to do which was worth their while!! From the year 2002, Julie is the contemporary new age women with a new job that sucks, she seeks consolation in the one constant in her life i.e. if you put eggs, flour, chocolate and sugar together you get a batter beaten to death in order to reach heaven :-) She knows that cooking is the only thing that she can rely on to break away from everything inconsistent in her life including her residence that has recently shifted to the sad part of New York, Queens.  It is so true that while everything seems erratic in our lives we always take solace in that one thing we took to casually as a hobby like cooking, painting, sketching or for that matter writing. Sometimes, we don't really know if we have a 'book' in us but surely we do have a ton of anecdotes and small memories that are worth sharing. Blogs are brilliant because of that. I feel I am writing it for a select group of friends but god knows who all are reading it. Julie's effort to find a worthy one year was in taking up cooking challenge where she had 365 days to cook 524 of Julia Child's recipes.


Julie trying Julia's recipes




It is the same Julia whose story has been beautifully intertwined from the 1950's France to the present day of Julie who seeks inspiration from her. The first woman to take up an advanced French cooking class with only men in tug disliking her for bettering the perfection that they created in their tutorial kitchens, Julia was a natural! Sadly with no children and therefore ample time at hand, France was the perfect ground to find her a new something to learn. Her heart set in America still, she wrote recipes after recipes for the 'serventless American women'!


Reel & Real Julia Child

 Her struggles in finding her true calling are so relatable. After experimenting with learning a new language, then trying to make designer hats and then finally realising it is food that she really wants, Julia shows that unsure side of a woman who doesn't quite stop at a compromise for a choice. Once her book is taking shape she loses a publishing deal that she almost clinched. What she doesn't lose is hope! Dejected for a while, the support of a loving husband sees her through to finally a cook book!
 Julie on the other hand is potrayed as this lady who gets obsessed with Julia, her use of butter and has almost the same conviction to get through those 524 recipes in a year. However, she is reckless, consumed in one task at a time, and almost not as evolved as Julia. Julie let's go without giving it too much of a try. She is not cooking for a supportive husband but for  mission. Amazing how Julie was even more me... more 21st century with rationing time and juggling work and home, sometimes giving up on the personal time. At that time Julia is much of an inspiration. No wonder that Julie loves the butter smacking Julia.
   It's amazing how the maker of this masterpiece movie has been able to capture the truest, the simplest need in both Julia and Julie and in fact all of us women and that is to live a beautiful life...create something brilliant for everyone to marvel & most importantly ENJOY it ourselves :-) It can be our passion for stitching, knitting or even the professions we are in, it all gives us such joy. We are the wives, the mothers that have another something we love to do with our lives.
Now whether it is desperation to live a life full of color and creativity, i don't know but it is usually how I very happily see many of us living :-)

designer emotions@dharavi? Kabhi nahi!

Bahot dino ke baad aaj Dharavi ka rasta liya!!  The 60 meter Dharavi road is a path less trodden in my regular commute to work and back. The simple reason being that just like the nallah running parallel to this road the traffic there is always choked. However today because I chose to travel by a taxi my taxiwallah chose to travel by Dharavi J! Usually in the comforts of my own car I don’t even realize the passage of life I am crossing through. Today was different!!

Going from the same place, I managed to get a closer look at those ugly, tattered, stacked one on top of the other jhuggis!!. There were sights that I observed that were stark contrasts from our being in the usual rosy life. For instance, I noticed a man who was dressed in a clean white shirt and pajamas struggling to comb his just washed hair. The shanty that he was staying in could not be high enough for a man of average height like him. With a broken window glass for a mirror, and jute sacks as curtains, on a closer look I figured he wasn’t really unhappy or ‘struggling’ as I said before. 

Then there was a young girl playing with a little baby who was lying on the wall that separates the nallah from the chawls. I was scared for his life thinking what if he topples? But the girl seemed carefree, happy to play with the little one busy tying his/her scarf. To think that we have always learnt that babies need to have an infection free environment, this was quite a contrast. However again the girl looked happy and the little baby was not crying (so I am assuming he was happy too!)

A board in Marathi stated that dropping scrap in the nallah is a punishable act but just a foot away there was a tailor who was throwing purple colored fabric pieces in the nallah right there. One elderly man was borrowing shaving blades from his upstairs neighbor.

Overall the construct of these chawls screamed convenience. There were bunches and bunches of electric wires put together hugging the tallest chawl and there were big small water pipes coming out of each one of these rooms directed towards the nallah. The site of the nallah itself was so repulsive that I seriously wondered how these people manage to bring themselves to live there.

Then it occurred to me… the biggest and the strongest instinct of mankind- Survival!! Our evolution is based on it (as per Charles Darwin). While we dabble with designer dreams in our designer homes, these people have no time to dream. Everything, everyone is a step, a resource utilized to survive. Emotions, feelings, candy clouds, picture perfect holidays gayee tel lene!!  To think there are many amongst us who cannot manage emotions and need psychological help seems like a completely alien concept to them. For a moment we may feel for them but with them being incredibly busy in putting one breath and the other together I wonder if they have anytime to even feel these ‘designer emotions’. The means to get anywhere are probably not even classified. Like a struggling director crudely put it ‘Jab bhook lagti hai to ghanta sach jhooth mein farak samajh aata hai’ !!  Really! It is then when a rucksack serves well as a curtain and a dirty corner in the wall works well as a baby crib. I don’t know what we do or don’t do to deserve our lives but for sure whichever and whatever life a man gets, somehow he manages ‘live’ it!!

Sunder Munderiye..!!!

 Two days ago was Lohri! Going by the books it is the end of the harvesting season in Punjab and the end of winter in North India. But for me and most of my cousins who grew up together in one big Dilli ka ghar, it was one day when we could wear the best of clothes and eat as many aate ki pinni’s  as possible. All the mummy’s and Badi Mamma (my granny) would be busy figuring out the number of guests who would be coming over for Lohri baalna (bon fire) in the evening. Or on several other occasions it would be them figuring out gifts for those relatives to whose houses we have been invited for Lohri Party.  It used to be a day off from school so in the morning all us kids would be busy ‘helping’ the men of the house in bringing apart old rained down furniture that was comfortably getting accumulated in one corner of the terrace. Although it was for the fire in the evening we would bash up the furniture with an utter sense of urgency (it was somehow a lot of fun) post which we were obviously super tired , hence jumping and prancing about further was not an option!!!    Poori sabzi and half a phooge ka laddoo later, we all would be fast asleep only to wake up to the halwais’ Kadhayi and bartan making a racket in the verandah ahead. All the mummy’s would have by now gotten ready with the best of jewellery and phulkari dupattas. My chachi (aunt) used to go a step ahead and tie a paranda in her plait.     

Pinni- the most popular lohri sweet meat




We kids had no special agenda other than waiting for the bon fire to get started hence we used to pass time with picking up one of the wooden phattas (plank) meant for the fire and start playing cricket with a newspaper rolled up as a ball.

As soon as the bon fire would come to life our much beloved bat and ball would be ‘swahah’ed in it. Also there was a sudden realization. It was indeed very cold during those days. Delhi is still shivering at some 6 degrees but I guess with all the day’s play us kids would never really feel it. Anyhow, so there was a bonfire and all the elder were throwing in til, gud ke laddoo, corn that would eventually pop out of the bon fire and almost hit us back . There was the punju song and dance with the music blaring from our beloved Phillips 240v deck. The butterrrr chicken and lachha paratha would follow with Uncle’s ‘Car-o-bar’!!! (concept of booze in a car’s boot which only Delhiites are aware of I guess J).

 

typical dressing for lohri celebration



As the wood turned to amber coal and the fire gave way, the party also used to come to a close with all relatives chasing bye bye’s for at least half an hour on the gate (another punju tradition that never leaves us!!). And for us chillar party, we were almost sad to let go of either our dumb charades or i-spy dens!

That was Lohri for most of us as kids. Today, life has moved on. All cousins are either studying in some part of the world or are happily married. I have shifted from Delhi to Mumbai as well. By virtue of marrying a Parsi, there is no knowledge amongst most about the Punjabi new year or all that goes on in that day.  Therefore, today it is all about sifting a few of my ‘kind’ who know its relevance and (unlike most others who continuously make fun of this festival’s name) get a few figs of wood and coconut shells in a bowl and do a small fire, throw in some revdi and Act II popcorn, and a few ‘hoye hoye’ and half a ‘sunder munderiye’ song  at a dear friend’s place. Life’s hues have changed. Smaller things were very big when we were small. Every festival was an event, an opportunity to have fun. These days it’s almost inconvenience to most. After all, there are way too many tasks to juggle aur uske ooper rishtedaron se kaun miley? Somehow, very very strangely I am continuously thinking of that one dialogue that Ajay devgan brilliantly delivers in the movie Singham – Mujhmein hai dum kyunki meri Zarooratein hain kum!!  :-)

FOOD SHOW ADDICTION!!

Nigella's home as brilliant as her food!!

Think there is a new category of addiction in the psychiatrist's book - FSA or FOOD SHOW ADDICTION. I for one am a self confessed food show addict (no prizes for guessingJ). I absolutely love watching cooking shows on TV. Travel comes a close second as the moment there is Nigella, David Rocco, Rachel Allen, Rude boy, Donna Hay or Master Chef Australia (and only MC Australia!!)Calling, I forget everything. There can be the most difficult recipe on offer but just for the fact that its sheer art on plate I would be delighted just to see it happen. I think there is a huge something about cooking and food that tingles the reward centre in our brains so brilliantly that we tend to forget most of the idiots we bummed into through the day.

Therefore my attempt at exploring the reason that makes food shows so addictive. I think, food shows are not any more about food alone. They have a promise of sorts. A promise to make you look like someone with great culinary skills (without really having them) by combining some basic yet clean ingredients and cooking up a great HS (high society) dish. Better still these shows have a promise of having a kitchen, read lifestyle that would ensure you cook those many designer dishes in those designer kitchens and homes. 

Donna Hay's fast, fresh, simple!



 Donna Hay’s obsession with ‘white’ from the cutting board she uses to the kitchen oven and the show set that has sand and gushing sea as backdrop transcends you straight to that beautiful home of hers. You want to see her cook not just because of all the simple yummy recipes but more so for the cooking she would do on that beautiful griddle on her balcony with the noise of waves and the breeze in her hair. Her cutlery is so enviable that you would eat plain celery out of it and NOT complain J

Then there is the ever so favorite Nigella Lawson, the queen of excesses. Her beautiful English home just makes me long for a place exactly like hers. With books of all kinds stacked rustically yet all over the place, Nigella’s kitchen can be forgotten for a while (i.e. until I explore her entire house). Another thing that I will give an arm and a leg for is her pantry..! It is so quaint, almost like a hobbit’s den that has almost everything to rescue someone who is pressed under a hard day. Nigella’s trick to cook is simple… EXPRESS WAY. So although the real time cooking isn’t really that fast (have tried) I want to see her cook something that I may have half a chance at when I return to my kitchen from a long stressful drive back home!  The fairy lights in her kitchen take me back to the word ‘celebration’. That cozy corner cooks up lamb shanks and ice-cream cakes with the same zest. Her special edition of Nigella Christmas was exceptional. It really made my desire to see a white Christmas even stronger. The real Christmas tree with Nigella’s cheat’s Christmas pudding threw a cinnamon smoke cloud and I fell in love with food show once again. 

So you see it is not just about the food but also about the lifestyle that promises a lot. After all, who wouldn’t want to have a house with a fantastic back garden that not only houses all the fresh food ingredients but also a real wood oven? To top it all, the dream is complete with the promise of doing nothing but gardening and cooking food that is absolutely beautiful!! What say Jamie Oliver?

 









APPLE OF THE i

So why it is that Steve jobs has been revered so much by the entire world..! Is the reason the inventions he did? Or the technology that he presented to the world? That too but the biggest reason why Jobs has been such an inspiration is the fact that he stood tall & proud presenting to the world a person whose mind was never deterred by cancer. His brain worked as efficiently despite a failing body.

Ever since pancreatic cancer hit, Steve knew the journey is not going to last long. May be that is why he refused to wait… wait for the eventuality to happen. He made a choice! A brave choice that opened doors for such technology that would have probably taken him 20 years to develop but for the reasons he kept close to his heart until very late. It was a tall order however  the man who is known to speak very little took it on himself to show the world what only a great mind like Edison displayed or for that matter what Willy Wonka illustrated in the chocolate factory.

For me Steve Jobs was more of an artist, a painter who may have had a different canvas but the purpose was the same. Bring to life what the world deserves to see and feel and absorb and more importantly enrich itself with. His words at the Stanford convocation in 2005 are not just enlightening but also autobiographical. He was not only a super creative czar in the world of apple but also someone who felt and more importantly conveyed a common man’s emotions and worries. The part where he talked about the fear of death and how it is life’s biggest invention really wells up nothing but ‘respect’ for the man who so beautifully put forth a truth we all know about but somehow programmed to forget.

Steve Wozniak & Steve Jobs

May be that was what was different about Steve..! May be he never forgot the fact that death is an eventuality that does not knock on the door except interrupts the flow of life. Before his could go out of him he made sure he gives the world something to remember him by. The quality of a true human being who has indeed served a purpose; A purpose that looks out for the progress of the human race not only in technological  creations and inventions but also in examples of ‘self belief’ that took his creations leaps and bounds ahead of others, ‘righteousness’ that made him resign from the  CEO position thanks to failing health, passion that still saw him standing tall for the launch of the latest ipad and most importantly humaneness that never let go of the dream he dreamt in a garage 25 years ago with a friend who shared the same name but probably not the same destiny!! R.I.P Steve Jobs!  

Zach- pure & innocent ch1

This time the trip from Mumbai to Delhi wore a different hue. There was something about it that looked unsettled. The city that usually brims with joy, excitement and most of all fun for me, my Delhi looked a bit dazed. On second thoughts I think it was me. Yes, before getting to Delhi, we lost the most celebrated member of my family in mumbai, our beloved Rottweiler ZACH. He was 8. Honestly I wasn't quite aware of the fact that I was so attached to him until we lost him so suddenly. 
I must confess that I am a convert. A convert from being a non believer in keeping pets especially dogs to being one who cherishes Zach's presence in the house. I believe there is still time before I actually get to accept the overall concept but for sure Zach was an exception. 5 years ago when I first entered the Patel household situated on the main road between the plush Dadar Parsi colony and the green Matunga, other than the fact that I was going to meet my 'would be' in-laws, I was much worried about the most special member of the family who would meet me instead of it being the other way round J So after meeting the folks I sit there, not supposed to move too much and in comes a big, handsome, tall, large headed Zach. Must say I was taken aback by the sheer size of this guy, his face was literally in my face :-)! However despite his almost shocking size I noticed that he was immensely gentle, cutely sniffing all over. My dad in law is right when he says Zach is the four footed gentleman who is unaware of the muscle he and his kind hold. After all Rottweiler is a banned breed in some countries. This one was a family dog.
Hanez (my fiancé & now husband) was very clear that it will take a lot of time for Zach to get used to me and the day he lets me scratch his belly that would be the day when I would have broken the ice. Although I didn’t quite pay much heed to all the ‘alert talk’ the very next morning I opened the room door and saw Zach sitting in the alley looking at me wagging his nonexistent ‘poochh’. I laughed and started petting him and voila! our dear friend turns on his back and gives me his belly to scratch…yippee! I was grinning ear to ear. That I think was the moment when Zach and I became friends!   

Rain Dance Party!

There is nothing more inspiring than the time I am on road in mumbai. Just so much is happening in that 5 km stretch from home to office. Early morning when I am making a virtual to-do list, I see a couple enjoying their 'dashboard breakfast'... yes! it is actually a more recent addition to the psychological study of the metros (i am not making this up!!!) where people rushing to work have their breakfast in the car while it sits on the car's dashboard :-)). Anyhow, as I would maneuver through that edible happening, I realise it has started raining. The Mumbai rains are indeed like the 'bin bulaye mehmaan' that land up anytime without even informing, in this case a bit of thundering or lightning! They just start tipper-tapping on the car's roof..! Through the comforts of air conditioned interiors and watching the outside through my well wipered glass I see a group of slum children taking off their Baniyans and dancing away in the joy of receiving the much awaited shower. Such a beautiful, simple pleasure of life! These kids were completely unaware of the bustle of cars going past or the 'pollution' on the road or in the water. All they cared for was to get their dance steps right; there made for such an endearing sight when they tied their colorful baniyans on their waist and starting following their 'master ji' who was a slightly older boy in the gang. The rains have such different consequences in our heads. Inside the car I am worried about the umbrella that i didn't carry, the potholes that may give way to dirty water splashed on me the moment I get out of the car, the entire effort of tip toing through the kicchhad! But for these kids, none of this mattered; all that was important was how heavy can this rain fall and the tune in their heads to which they all are care freely dancing to on the side of yet another pothole! Am sure at some point they would use the pothole also as a prop!
Really, jaded as it sounds, in the bid to get all comfy and 'successful' we have somewhere lost the taste of the time for the simple joys of life!