Dieting in the city.

My mom lived in a nice world. She remained healthy and slim all her life and she had no restrictions on her diet. She would eat whatever she wished and there were no issues to discuss. My aunt lived in a nice world. She remained healthy and big all her life and she had no restrictions on her diet. She would eat whatever she wished and there were no issues to discuss. Nowadays, every second person you meet, you find her slimmer. And looking thin/big is a big issue, thing to discuss, thing to ponder. Whatever is happening to this world? Is there a food shortage or have people just stopped eating? Why is everyone dieting? Every body is aping each other and there is some sort of competition on getting thinner and thinner. Do they seriously mean to become so slim? But why? Why do people want to become so slim that they need to hold on to the lamp post every time there is a gush of strong wind? I think I know the answer. There has been advent of malls in our city. And there are fabulous clothes in every designer’s rack but they don’t seem to suit our big-sized sisters, so they have decided that they need to get into those small-sized pretty clothes. Or maybe, there are too many gyms in our city (one in every lane) and its is a in-thing to belong to some gym or other (‘Oh, what gym do you go?’, ‘I go this gym and we have this film star visiting too’. . ‘oh really, how lucky, I will join too’), It is the deep rooted desire to be the part of and belong to some group or other. Or is it that non-tasty, non-oily food/ snacks that is a craze nowadays? We are having great number of dietician who are trying out range of healthy foods and are seriously looking for big-bodied girls to experiment their stuff and miraculously, it works! The hot topic at the kitty parties is what you can and cannot eat. And the list is endless. And I am very much confused! Everybody says: Don’t eat anything white. That means bread, rice, milk and milk products, salt and sugar should be eradicated from our super-marketing list Don’t eat tin or preserved food. That means all the fragmented food like tin food, packed food, cold-stored food, chopped food should be avoided No drinks. So no coke, Fanta, soft drinks, aerated drinks, tea, coffee. No biscuits, skip the lane in a super market which has biscuits on display No chocolates, skip this row too. No fried stuff. So no samosas, batatawadas, bhajias, puris etc No Mithais or any other sweets. Bad for health. So what do I eat? Only fruits and vegetables, sprouts and nuts? Okay! So when can I eat my normal food again?

Card game called Rummy!

When I was small I was made to believe that playing cards is a vice to be avoided. So I only played solitaire and free cell. But as I grew up, I realized that my elders enjoyed the game of Rummy and whenever they met for lunch on Sundays, they played cards and passed their time. The family met regularly. They cheered, laughed and joked while playing rummy and sometimes they quarreled over a poor game or bad luck but the bond within the family was maintained and all the members looked forward to lunches and a game of rummy on Sundays and on festive days. My aunts and cousins would encourage me to play, sometimes sponsoring me, so that I would sit, joke and play with them. I was thus introduced to a game of Rummy and I gradually learnt to enjoy it as it kept me away from gossip and idle chat and also from taking endless, aimless walks, surfing through those shopping malls. And now I am a regular player of cards, and my educated/ literate friends don’t seem to understand my this passion. Every time I play cards, I am introduced to a new game. Many years ago there used to be only thirteen-cards-game of rummy that we would play with one or two packs of cards and there used to be one/two jokers and one pure run. But people soon got tired of playing the same game of only thirteen cards, every afternoon from two to seven. So they decided to try this game with little alteration. And the rummy with twenty-one cards was introduced. People complained at first, that they could not hold twenty-one cards, and the cards kept slipping out from the hands, but gradually people started liking it and for many years they play rummy with twenty-one cards where you make three pure runs and you play with three pack of cards. There are three real jokers plus one-up and one-down in addition to the card displayed as joker. Then, to make game more interesting, they introduced ‘andha kanoon’ where the joker was hidden till you had three runs ready. After some years again a new version of this game was introduced where you make four compulsory runs and then make your own joker to declare a game, earning the maximum penalties. And now, again, they have one more alteration. The new rummy is now played with twenty-seven cards. And they are not complaining about their inability to hold it because they have learnt the tactics of holding them efficiently in two layers. In this version, you have to make four runs and there many jokers. The main joker that is displayed carries its value two-up and two-down of same color and thus increasing the penalties. It is no more a game of wit but it is only a game of luck. If you get good set of cards, play or else pack your game and keep losing. And, I am still loving it…..

'Tara Rum Pum' go see it with children....timepass....

Went to see ‘Tara Rum Pum’ staring Saif Ali, Rani Mukerjee and two kids Priya and Ranveer. It is a cute story (more like a fairy tale) about a car racer who meets with an accident and his happy-go-lucky-live-for-a-present life goes up-side-down bringing hardships to his family. There are moral lessons to be learnt. We must save for the rainy day. (Saif buys expensive gifts like diamond ring, finishing all his money without a thought to paying of the house rent, buys big house, car and all luxury items in installments which he loses it all in his bad times when he has no money to pay for installments nor does he have enough money for his son’s treatment, who is seriously hurt when he swallows a piece of glass) Live with self-respect. (father offering 50,000 dollars to his daughter in hard times but the daughter refusing to take, prefers to live in penury), Don’t ever lie (Saif lies about his daughter being sick with pneumonia and get sympathy and cash from friends that he, then spends on celebrating the birthday of his child) and don’t worry, be happy. (The children are made to believe that they are participating in an reality show called ‘don’t worry be happy’ where they can pretend to be poor but still keep a smile. (That is why I say fairy tale, because children are no more stupid these day but still play along with their parent’s make-believe tale).

Chilled veggies at my doorstep?

I have this vegetable and fruit seller who rings my doorbell at all odd hours. Sometimes if I am too lazy to go out and buy those heavy vegetable, I welcome him and even buy from him. But there are times when I am doing my thinking exercise (for example : writing) or cleaning exercises (for example: bath) or breathing exercises (for example: meditation) Now, will I like somebody ringing my doorbell in such odd hours? So either I don’t answer the doorbell at all or answer the doorbell and show him one of my devilish moods. But I guess they are used to that and they keep coming back unperturbed by our bad moods. But, all that is likely to change. No I don’t mean that we will permanently start patronizing the food stores and supermarket but better still, in future we will not be able to refuse those sophisticated — a simple, out-of-the-box thela, that has been conceived by Acme Cold Chain Solutions, a New Delhi-based firm. Acme is investing Rs1 crore for a three-month pilot project in which 25 chilled hawking trolleys will be used to vend fresh food and fruits, improvising on the traditional sabjiwala’s facility. They are planning to have direct-to-home service providers to launch the mobile fresh foods venture called ‘All Fresh’. We will be able to book through a toll-free number, collected at a call centre facility in Gurgaon, and will be transmitted to the nearest ‘All Fresh hawking trolley operator’, who will then deliver fruit/vegetable at the our doorstep. Will I scowl at these veggie-vendor? Time will tell!

Pampering our taste buds

Though my nutritionist has prohibited me from eating road side ‘Kachra’ as she calls it, but this is the temptations I just cannot resist. We have so many road side vendors at every street that it is sometimes impossible to control the drooling. Agree, that road-side is the most unhygienic way of pampering ourselves, what with the traffic moving about, throwing the dust up in the air which finally comes to rest on the open food, and also the lack of clean water (they keep washing the used vessels from the mininmum of half cup of water) but still we drool. And before we wet the streets with our overflowing drool it is best to shuff mouths with the tasty flavors of the road side stuff. I love the Pani-Puri and Batatapuri the best. There is a batatapuri wallah who stands outside my gate and he makes the most delicious stuff. One day I had a kitty party at my place and I asked him to bring his whole stall up on the second floor. The ladies were so impressed and some of them, till today, remind me of that luxury. And what did I have to lose? I didn’t have to slog into my kitchen like our cousins in foreign country do! We, in India, just ask him to come up and handle the culinary part. (boo-boo) I also love to eat Samosas and Batawadas. I like them best with those fried soft chillies and stuffed into bread. (yummy!) Then we also have the most delicious sandwiches. Sssluurrrrp! The vegetable sandwiches and the cheese toast. Then there is Pavbhaji, Ragda-Pattis, Bhajias……The list is endless. Although, many of these stalls have been put up hygienically (wearing those plastic gloves et el) in the malls, but we still patronize the roadside, in the open air.. Who cares anyway? Dhekha jayega! We were brought up that way!