Orlando

Orlando - Where a kid can be a kid!! (Yes, i know, thats from chuck-e-cheese but I m gonna alter it a bit). Orlando - Where anyone can be a kid!!!

The palm-lined streets lead you to the exotic, exciting, enchanting, exhilarating, eye-popping, enticing and the most extraordinary theme parks of the world. DISNEYLAND. and yes, the UNIVERSAL STUDIOS too. But since this time, we were accompanied by our starry-eyed, Princess Anushka, we decided to skip Universal altogether and just ball-dance into the Magic Kingdom first. From the moment you set your eyes on that beautiful fairy-tale castle that greets you on your way in, its nothing short of a truly magical day, for kids and grown-ups, alike. It makes you want to swirl around in the carousel, take the ride into 'Winnie-land', fly the magic carpet and line up to click pictures with the characters. Its funny. I can understand Anushka just exuberant about meeting her favorite princesses, but what was I jumping about? I guess the smile on her face made me glow with bliss too.

We did visit three other Disney parks. Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood studios, none of which can be missed. Each park is completely different from the other. And what should I say about the weather? How perfect can it be? While we 'jacket' around up North, the people here can be perfectly happy in their shorts and camis in the months of winter. Well, so much for geography and climate, huh?

Disneyland can be an album of memories for you and your family. Do not miss it. I know some people wait for a suitable age for one or multiple kids to make a trip here, but you know what, there is fun for all. While Mickey and Donald amuse a baby, a toddler can sing along with Barney and Winnie. The little girls can dance their way with the princesses and fairies, while the older ones can go crazy on the roller coasters. Don't make them miss out on any age-appropriate fun. If you are here in US, a trip every 3 years wouldn't be too hard, would it?

p.s. The fireworks I saw at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot is something I have never, ever seen in my entire life. They are nothing short of spectacular.

I am the Best Chef in this world!!!

After earning the earlier title of "the most beautiful person in this world", so honorably bestowed by my daughter, today I get a new one, that of being "the best chef in this world". Actually she first said, "Mommy, you are the best cooker in this world". Ouch!!! Anushka, I am not a cooker. Do I have a whistle on me. That sent her splitting into giggles. It was time to infuse her little brain with the more appropriate term here. Chef. Not cooker. So for Anushka, I am the best chef in this world.

Yes, this is definitely going to make Jignesh 'split into giggles' too when he reads this. Well, to be honest, cooking, isn't my forte. What really is my forte is still a mystery waiting to be unraveled. lol. But cooking certainly isn't. That doesn't mean I don't cook. That doesn't mean I don't cook yummy food. I do. I don't starve my kids. But its something that I don't like to spend a lot of time on. I find shortcuts and I spoon my way out with compact recipes.

Coming back to my title of best chef. Its touching, rather an endearing emotion that makes one feel that 'maa ke haath ka khana' is the best in this whole world. Any imperfection or any imbalance is completely ignored coz you ate this all your life. You loved it first, and you love it now. More than love, its the feeling of satiety it gives you. The feeling of content. Hearty content. You grew up eating it. You will always savor it throughout your life. I remember going on extended trips and eating out at all the possible dhabas and restaurants and dharamshalas. But when we would come back home, it was mummy's khichdi kadhi that made us feel complete.

A friend of mine, just recently forwarded a bhajan to me. Here is an excerpt from it that goes on to describe what Lord Krishna missed after he left Gokul and moved to Mathura.

Chappan bhog ahi roj pirsaata

Par makhan ne roti mari rahi gayi gokul ma

(We have a feast served every day in the palaces of Mathura, but it is the roti and makhan that I miss the most from Gokul)

So irrespective of my interest and level of skill in this world of pots and pans, I have earned the title of "Top Chef" and it is going to stay with me. Thank you Anushka. You make me so happy.

Liberating!!!

What can be more liberating than the truth, or freedom, or retirement, or getting all your debts paid off? Closet cleaning. lol. I know. As ridiculous as it may sound, it was liberating for me. Perhaps not as liberating as the above, but well, liberating enough to qualify as a topic for my blog. :)

Anyways, I spent the last weekend digging deep in my closets, shelving it a bit more, tossing the junk and re-organizing. And tossing the junk we so invariably collect over the year is what I am going to talk about today. As this American economy keeps flooding us with deals and we, naive that we are, keep buying and shopping, its finally left to the closet to bear the brunt of our hasty thoughtfulness, or rather, non-thoughtfulness. Though closets have proved to be very very accommodating so far, never complaining, just plain smiling their way through, there isn't much it can really do when your clothes start to spill over. No matter how much you kick them back in, they just overflow. And thats when it strikes us. Whoops, I have to fix this mess. And off we go hunting for closet solutions. I did the same. Dumped, dumped, dumped, till it literally yelled at me. Clean me guys, c'mon, how could you be so blind? And so I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. One thing I have to say is my kids had a ball. Pucho kyu? Coz when I got every piece of cloth out and made a big humongous pile, they had such a great time just jumping and falling on it. Anyways, in the process, I made up some tossing rules which I'd like to share with ya.

Rule #1: Some of the clothes are just plain old. No matter how dear it is to you or it has been given to you by some loved one, or you just totally love it, let it go. They are old. Your friends, your family, your neighbors are just sick of seeing in you in that uniform. SO LET IT GO.

Rule #2: Some clothes you'll find you bought for reasons you forgot. They stare at you annoyingly and ask you, if you didn't ever wanted to use me, why the heck did you bother picking me off the store. And what do you do? You keep 'em for a few years. Each year, putting them either at the bottomest of your pile, or so behind that you never have to look at it and feel guilty. LET IT GO. Even if its been just a year, let it go. Its not worth it.

Rule #3: C'mmon, face it. You have grown fat for watever reason there is. Either you have been indulging yourself into sinful desserts or you now have a pouch on account of child-bearing duties :). A little, more, doesn't matter and there is no way you are ever going to fit into those zero size jeans. LET IT GO. And if at all you do go back to your size, you could just go pick up a couple of new pairs.

Rule #4: Its out of fashion girl. Grow up. You can't wear those flared-up jeans or anarkali salwar suits. THROW IT AWAY.

Well, so you see, after some serious tossing away, I now have a few piles. A throw-away pile, a donation pile, some to pass over to friends and their kids, and some for the next season. And my closets now are a sight of beauty. Anushka just opens them and loves to look at it. I hope it stays that way. Touchwood!!!

P.S. Use, re-use the kids' clothes. Get from your friends, pass them on to others. Afterall, their usage is so limited with these toddlers just aching to grow and grow.

Miniature Golf

One day my cousin, who is the same age as I am, tells me he is taking golf lessons. I say I am appalled. Why do you want to play a game for 'buddhas'? Don't you have anything better to do. He tries to explain to me that it certainly is not a game for 'oldies' and that its pretty fun. Moreover, it helped him tremendously in his business, coz a lot of deals are 'dealt' with in these beautifully landscaped pastures. And I just kept laughing. I really believed its a total waste of beautiful land. Acres of plush green carpet to be trampled by the dimpled ball ....and the little golf carts. And to think of it, this oh-so-boring game came with its own gear, complete with its own line of clothing. I thought it was overrated. Politicians, celebrities, the 'corporates' and the like in their fancy golfing attire made a really good 'personable' picture in the Times magazine. And thats as far as it goes. As Mark Twain puts it, 'I consider golf to be an expensive way of playing marbles.' Little did I realize that one day, I would really enjoy this game.

A couple of weeks back, we went to Adventure Park USA. Anushka

s ticket included a game of mini golf. I had seen a lot of mini golf courses but I never bothered to venture out in any of these, thanks to my stupid preconceived notions. But as Anushka got bored with a couple of holes, it was left to me and Jignesh to finish the rest of the 18-hole round. And as I starting 'putting' up and managed to get the ball in the hole, I began to really enjoy. One time, I did hole it in just two strokes. Yippie!!! I was so excited. I can't wait to get back to mini golf, and this time, going through it with a score card.

Speaking of miniature golf, whoever thought about it. I googled up a bit and found that coz it was tough for the women to carry the bulky golf clubs, let alone giving it a hard swing, and traipsing around this huge field would be hard on the heels, they came up with this miniature golf idea. And how brilliant was it!!! Women, as well as the men, were able to get their hands around these loaded golf sticks and golf didn't remain an acronym for 'Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden'. And I also found that the 'dimpled' ball is 'dimpled' coz the 382 (wowww) 'dimples' help it to travel higher and farther.

Anyways, details aside, it is a fun game. And if you haven't tried it, GO. GO GOLF.

My dream last night

Since this blog has kinda become like my diary, I want to put my dream down in here so that I don't forget about it. It was just such a funny and an interesting one, wonder how my brain is super efficient in concocting some serious fiction. :)

So I have this neighbor, Petra. She is always doing something with her front and back yards. So I dream that she has this really windy creeper growing in her garden that sports tomatoes. Yes, tomatoes are hanging from these vines. The vines grow so long that they somehow make their way inside my kitchen, with the juicy reds just hanging from my ceiling. So when I want to cook, I just pluck one out right from my ceiling. (This is so hilarious). Anyways, I am talking to Petra about her tomatoes and she suddenly excuses herself, runs into her house, and then comes out all out of breath. She tells me this super super exciting news in a rather serious tone. She says, all the houses in our community are soon gonna be worth 1 and 1/2 million dollars. I obviously ask how come. She says someone is going to come visit us and explain why. Let me tell everyone in the neighborhood. Everyone gathers just outside my house. I notice a few desis that I never knew stayed in my community. We all are just abuzz with the million dollars, oops, million and a half dollars just twinkling in our eyes.

Just then, a fat chinku woman comes up. (I have never seen a fat chinku woman in my life). She takes on the stage. She explains: "A new Harry Potter movie is about to be released in a couple of months. This movie shows that the entire world is going to collapse. Or atleast America. All the buildings are going to fall, all structures will crush. The only community to escape this tragic phenomenon will be the Woodlake community. Which is our community. So the minute the promos start running through the TV, the home prices are going to rise and rise and rise. We estimate, atleast till a million and a half dollars. So guys, finish your upgrades, do up your houses, coz your homes are going to be the most expensive in this entire country." We gasp under our breath. The first thing I do is call Jignesh and let him know. The dream ends here.

Let me break my dream down and just try to analyse the circumstancial evidence for such an occurence....in my brain. :0

1. First, the tomatoes. I have to admit that I have longed for my very own vegetable garden. I'd rather plant veggies than flowers. Apart from the fact that I am a total 'duh' with gardening, I am unable to use my little backyard coz have rented out my basement. Front yard is for flowers obviously. But I shadow my laziness with my perfectly honest excuse of not knowing a thing about planting. But one day, I'll get my hands around the 'Gardening for dummies' book and I'll have the garden I desire.

2. We want to move to a bigger house. But with the home prices down, can't really talk about selling. So I do hope that the prices will come up a bit in a couple of years. Though a million bucks would definitely be a jackpot. That was an exaggerated dream I must admit.

3. I love Harry Potter. The book, the movie, the characters, everything about it.

4. I did catch the trailor for the movie 2012. So that explains the 'end of the world' part.

Well, goodnight, Bon Nuit, and long for continuity of life.

Connected globally!

Calling India was never...ever...so easy as it is now. What more could we expect? Unlimited free calling worldwide, especially to India, was a dream and its come true. Thank you Vonage. Thank you for connecting us globally and shrinking the 'virtual' distance even more.

Last week, when I heard about the Vonage World plan, I was pretty sure there is a catch. I call up the customer service and repeatedly ask the same question. Is there any hidden charge? She ended up laughing at me and assured me there was none. Then I make my first call. As soon as I finish with it, I go online, log in to my account to see if there was any charge. And there was none. Yippieeee!!! I am screaming. I call Jignesh and let him know. Liberation! Liberation! Liberation from those torturous calling cards and access numbers and pin numbers and lets not forget the pressure of the 'n' cents/minute. I have been enjoying this thoroughly as I pick one cousin or a friend every day and eat their brains.

Technology has come a longggggggg way. From letter-carrying pigeons to writing letters to making 'trunk' calls (I wonder why they were called trunk calls. Does anyone know why?) to making ISD calls to calling cards to VOIP phones offering unlimited calling at a very very reasonable charge/month. How does VOIP work, I have no clue. Jignesh has tried to explain it to me, but it goes right above my head. I can be plain dumb sometimes. And moreover, I really don't even want to break my head trying to decipher the server and internet highway lingo. As far as I am concerned, I am free now. I can call anywhere.....ok, almost anywhere in the world and that too unlimited. Technology rocks!!! and with it, so do I. By which I mean I am doing my happy dance. :) Helllllllloooooooooo India.

Movies!!!

Last weekend, I went for a movie, to a theater, and..., with no kids. Jignesh looked after them while I went giggling with my 'girl-friends'. You probably are thinking why am I making such a big deal out of it. Well, first of all, it has been ages since I went to a theater, and another thing, its been eons since I went without any kind of interference, ANY, whatsoever. I have got to do this more often. 3 hours of 'me-time' got me all rejuvenated to go running back to my kids and take them on.

I remember the time, back in college, when my preferences to choosing a movie were different. We have such a platter available to us. Artsy, mushy, bone-tickling, alien-y, dishum-dishum, cartoony, ghost-y and drama.

Of em all, the ones that I would totally avoid are:

Sci-fi: I kinda suffer from some intelligence deficiency. They go right above my head.

Horror/Suspense: I can't really have the demons and the monsters and the pyschos haunting me day and night. Bit of a scaredy cat here. Whats the point in watching those terrible, gut-wrenching atrocities? I still remember the theme music of 'Laal Killa' on DD. I would run away to another room when that started.

Action: Blood and violence, makes me nauseous. And obviously, the feats they show are totally impossible.

Extra-romantic: By which I mean the ones super suffused with extra sugar and unbelievable co-incidences that bring the hero and the heroine together. (yawn)

The ones I like and beginning to like:

Comedys including romantic comedys including chick flicks: Light, airy, fluffy, and funny, in that order. Can keep my serious side of the brain aside and switch the mode (read mood) to ...ummm unserious. Laugh through it and come out feeling literally lighter.

Artsy: By which I mean movies dealing with more real and factual issues, or even fictional but in a more real way. Something that touches the heart and makes you feel the world as is.

Cartoony: Wasn't Nemo and Lion King and Shrek so delightful and amusing?

Anyways, one thing I must add that reading the book first, and then watching the movie makes it more sensible. Like Harry Potter, or the Kite Runner, or even Namesake. It just made it so easy for me to understand. I'd highly recommend that.

Well, movies are stories. Stories that help keep our hopes alive. Stories that help keep us dreaming. Stories, that plain make us smile and laugh our hearts out. So always try to find some time to catch a nice one and let it stimulate your imagination.

Most memorable ones: Not Without My Daughter, Birdcage, Life Is Beautiful, Forrest Gump, Matchstick Men, I am Sam, Masoom, Slumdog Millionaire, Nemo, Lion King, to name a few.