Ideal Pastoral Life

A trip home is letting the magic of nature, surround and embrace you. Everywhere you look, beauty abounds and you can feel her breath pulsing in your veins. She calms and soothes the reluctant city dweller, and her touch is overwhelming. The soft cold breeze as it dances around you, the rain drops that linger on your skin, the clouds that hover above smiling and winking, the smell of the earth as it awakens to welcome the skies and the love that covers the land in green... infuses you, fills your soul and shines out of you. 

This and the next few pictures were taken from the train...

Lush paddy fields...

It's the monsoon season...

And the rain clouds were hovering nearby... ready to let go any second.

The hills and the windmills near my place...

This is how my colony looks, beautiful palatial houses...

canopy of flowering plants... 

Lavender orchids...

A creeper climbing high...

A path lined with coconut trees...

A quaint calling bell...

A dog lazily sleeping at the entrance to a house, near a kolam pattern...

Beautiful black goats lazing around...

More palatial houses...

Houses overflowing with greenery...

I like this little creeper entwined all over the balcony rail..
(click on the image for a larger view)

A glimpse of the new church in my colony... Infant Jesus Church.

So while I parked my bike and started talking all these pictures, I heard someone shouting 'Hey, Peythi!!!!'  (peythi in tamil means grand daughter) 

So I turned to find this man, and he was asking me why I wasn't taking a picture of him. So I said, okay give me a smile and I will. So here's Alagapan, a funny old gregarious man, I love his carefree attitude.   

Ah, going home is always good... and that too in the monsoon season, it's sheer bliss. Listening to the rains as I write this, it's living poetry outside my window. 

It's time, Feel this Moment (of) Clarity (on) The Other Side

Had an exam coming up and couldn't tune into the country music station, cause I didn't want to be distracted by trying to understand the lyrics and guessing who the artist was. So I tuned into the the station (HitKast) that plays 'more hits per hour than any other radio station on the planet', their words, not mine. Came across the following songs... and can't get them out of my head now, was surprised to find quite a few nice songs amongst the unbearable music that is churned out today by the biggest names in the music industry. You might like them too... of course most of these music videos aren't that great, but the songs are quite catchy.

This song automatically makes you sing and dance and ask random people, 'If our love is tragedy, why are you my clarity'.

Can't get enough of this song, these guys are so cool... many of their songs are pretty good.

Another song that grows on you...

Christina just keeps repeating the same thing over and over, and Pitbull randomly says something... I know, sounds difficult to believe, but the song does sound nice... in certain parts.
So, what songs seem to be stuck in your head, these days.... 

Hallmark Movies...

To take a break from all the mainstream commercial movies that pass off as entertainment today, I decided to watch a few Hallmark movies. These movies are like a grown up version of Disney, overloaded with cuteness and romance, and completely decent throughout. A few are even inspirational in nature, they speak about faith and redemption. Click on the movie titles to watch the trailer.

Remember Sunday: I loved this movie, mainly because it had Zachary Levi in it, I was already a goner for his Flynn Rider character in Tangled. Here, in person, he is even more endearing... he is just so ordinary in a cute way and I was falling for him throughout the movie. Okay, I'll calm down now... the girl is pretty cute too, she is the kid from that TV show Gilmore Girls, now she has grown into quite a stunning woman. So the story is, Zachary a brilliant young astrophysicist (who else is reminded of Rajesh Koothrappali) suffered a brain aneurysm and has short term memory loss. Everyday is practically brand new for him, he doesn't remember anything or anybody from yesterday. His old memory before the aneurysm is intact, so he remembers his sister and a friend who form his support group and help him get along with life. When he meets the girl, a struggling waitress, he has to make notes and record his memories each day. How they get along inspite of his handicap forms the rest of the story. The two lead actors manage to make this a charming and enjoyable movie, despite being so predictable. 

The Lost Valentine: This movie was poignant, it portrays a love so strong and pure it withstood the test of time. Betty White easily outshines the other characters, and the only sore point about this movie is Jennifer Love Hewitt, somehow she seems miscast as a TV reporter here. Here a young couple get separated when the husband, a pilot goes off to war and a telegram informs the wife that he is missing in action. The wife goes to the station to wait for him every year on the day he was supposed to return, and she does this unfailingly, for 60 years, waiting and waiting for her one true love to return. A TV channel gets wind of this heartwarming tradition and decides to do a show about it. What follows is the quest for the missing pilot and along the way the reporter herself learns a few lessons on love. This is a Christian movie with inspiring messages from the bible, and if it weren't for that Hewitt female, I would have liked it more. The flashbacks about the young handsome pilot were quite nice... 

Loving Leah: This one I wanted to see cause the premise sounded nice, it's about this old Jewish law, where a man has to take his sister in law as his wife after his brother dies. And here the brother in question happens to be a very handsome cardiologist, and when he attends his estranged brother's funeral, the rabbis tell him that he has to marry the widow. The guy looks at them incredulously and asks, 'You're kidding, right.' The cardiologist and the widow decide to marry and live as room mates and then get divorced after a year or so... but along the way they fall in love as expected. The movie is pretty good, you get to know about many Jewish customs, like how married women wear wigs to cover up their real hair.

Some alone time...

So the parents had gone on a Holy Land Trip to Jordan, Israel where they visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Cairo. They were pretty excited and I was excited cause I would get to be home alone, which let me tell you is a rare occurrence. I always seem to be surrounded by people... not that I am complaining. Growing up in a small town, people would drop by often and there would always be extra food on the table. After getting married and coming to the city, things haven't changed much... I am still surrounded by family and relatives. So the prospect of an empty house does seem beckoning, it's like a day off from school, no schedules or elders to adhere to. I connect the speakers to the country music channel, I cook only when I am hungry, no elders to chastise with horrors of ulcers or importance of eating on time. I hardly cooked this time though because of the oppressive heat, all I could manage to do was whip up some buttermilk and keep sipping at it throughout the day. It was bliss... I would catch a few episodes of The Practice in between reading and singing along with whoever was playing on the radio.

Then after a few days of awesome company with myself, my sister and brother arrived and that was a different kind of bliss. Siblings are always great, everything just seems funnier when they are around.

Keep it to Yourself...

So Facebook, where to start... you were rather entertaining and interesting at first, but now it has become more of a chore using you. Friends are good, but the over sharing of information is not. I mean, seeing their birthday or vacation pictures once in a while was good, a neat way to say hi and other pleasantries. But when they tend to go overboard by uploading pictures every alternate week, raking up enthusiasm for them can be draining. By friends I really mean acquaintances, those people you wouldn't even be in touch with if it weren't for Facebook. The real friends (who help me stay sane) are no problem... they are pretty cool and like minded, they know the value of privacy. We too upload pictures from time to time, but every album has a privacy setting, that enables only family, cousins and really close friends to access the pictures. Isn't that how it should be, instead of unleashing a torrent of pictures onto every Tom, Dick and Harry's wall. And then you are caught in a struggle of liking unnecessary pictures out of a displaced sense of niceness. We weren't that close in the first place to begin with, and I really don't want to know what latitudes and  longitudes you've crossed, cause quite frankly your attitude says it all. You're probably starving for attention or appreciation, I don't know what... but the deluge of information is not cool. Anyway, it is your account, you can do whatever you want with it. I guess in a way I should thank you, for making me use FB sparingly. 

Another aspect of facebook that I find unnerving, are the celebrities. The way they constantly jabber on and on about their songs and plead for votes to make it number one is pathetic. I know it's probably their PR handling all their social networking accounts, but still, it's degrading. If you know you are a good artist, just do your bit and we will listen. I listen to you because you are good, and by the time I start crushing on you, everything comes crashing down when I follow you on FB. You do sound better when you croon and smile and strum your guitar, not when you constantly tell us to click links and vote for you. And there is the other kind ,who handle their own accounts and constantly update it with every little information about their life. "Sitting at home, sipping wine and playing with my dog... ah, being home is bliss!" Is it really? And then the famous husband and wife duo who are both stars and have hectic schedules, sending out stuff like, 'I'm coming home honey, the weekend is ours. Daddy likey...' Thousands of people liking this and commenting about how they seem so down to earth and in love, inspite of being celebrities, celebrities I used to like... well, not anymore. 

There was a time I used to religiously follow the tour schedules of country singers in the hope that my sister and cousins, could catch a country concert. But when they promised to see Jake Owen and didn't book tickets on time cause they thought: 'it's a country concert, of course we'll get tickets on the last day too' (Jude, looking at you, bro) and when another cousin swears that he did see Jake Owen and proceeded to send a googled picture of Jake (Saj, looking at you, bro), I gave up on that too. There are times when I log into FB just to see people's reactions to a CSK win or an unexpected event in the city. Being half in love with Dhoni, I like all the yellow pride that goes around when CSK plays. 

Anyway, whenever the onslaught of  information becomes too much or when people tend to over share .. these words by Kacey Musgraves seems appropriate 'Keep it to Yourself'.

Poori and Potato...

So poori and potato, I am not a big fan of the deep fried poori, how healthy can anything deep fried be? But I love the potatoes, I love the way my mom makes them, not liquidly but a mashed potato kinda masala that can be folded within a poori and eaten. Makes for a great packed lunch too, neither messy nor fussy, just convenient and pretty good. 

First, cut the potatoes and boil them in water till they are cooked.

Finely chop a green chillie and an inch of ginger, and saute them in a little oil.

Finely slice a couple of onions and add them to the pan. Now the onions have to be sautéed till they caramelise, and turn golden brown. This is the defining moment, this is what gives the simple potato its awesome quality, that sweetness of the brown tinted caramelized onions along with the wholesome goodness of the potato is as good as any breakfast could get.

Nicely caramelized... this takes bout 10 to 15 minutes, while you stir continuously.

Add a little turmeric and appropriate quantity of salt.

Now drop in the cooked potatoes, and mix everything around nicely.

Here it is all ready.... 

Sprinkle freshly chopped coriander leaves on the top and you're done...

Enjoy this potato goodness with your fluffy pooris... 

Now, I noticed guys don't seem to like this.. that was when I realised it had nothing to do with the potato but everything to do with their moms. If they grew up with poori and potato as a staple breakfast, then mom's way is always the best for them, and any change in that routine does not go down well with them. Can't blame them, this is after all my mom's way of making it too, and I don't like the other watery and bland methods out there. This is the one I stick to, no matter how many complaints I hear at home, but I tend to skip the poori's and eat them with chapathi. Well, hope you like this... 

Tyler Knott Gregson

So while checking stuff on Pinterest, I came across this beautiful poem and I had to save it (click on the images for a larger view). I was that enamoured by the simple beauty interwoven in the phrases 'landscape of my pillow' , 'hillside of yours' and 'curtains of your eyes'. He sure can weave magic with words, so I checked him out online and apparently he has these whole typewriter series of poems that are wistfully beautiful. They tug at your heart and take you off into another world. Here is another one...

That made me smile...

'Saturated in your silhouette', who comes up with stuff like that... 

Needless to say,

I'm beginning to think

I may have the slightest bit of

crush on him.