Office, Boss, Colleagues

Crunch

Ever eaten a grasshopper?
I just ate two during dinner, thanks to a Mexican friend -- Andres, who brought a whole bagful of them over to my house this evening. How do I describe the taste? Umm...salty, crunchy, the after taste is somewhat like amla, or Indian gooseberry.

This is what Wikipedia says about chapulines or the kind of grasshoppers we ate tonight:
Chapulines are considered a delicacy by many Mexicans. They are collected only at certain times of year. They are thoroughly cleaned and washed out, then fried withchillies, garlic and lemon juice, to create a sour-spicy-salty taste that is a good complement for beer. Chapulines are available only in certain parts of Mexico, the state and city of Oaxaca being best known. They are available in varying sizes, small to large. They are known to have been used as food for over 3000 years.

Thanks Andres!

What Life Said On February 22, 2007

When I first landed in the US, the first month saw me thinking to myself at least a dozen times every day, “Wow! This is blog material. Let me make a mental note, I am going to write about this as soon as possible.”

Nearly seven months later, I can sense that drive decreasing. I hope that that is only because I have never been more busy in my life than I am at present: I have never had to read more, I have never had to write more, I have never had to be more careful of what I say and do, I have never been more active in student groups than I am now, I have never had to learn so much, retain it and use it immediately. I have never craved more for a holiday, for home, for people to understand what I am saying and what I am actually trying to say.

I have also never enjoyed the experience of being a student more than I am at present.

But I hope I am actually not losing interest in blogging because that would be sad, I mean KI just celebrated her first birthday! It would be disastrous for her if I tell her tomorrow, “That’s it. I am deleting you now!” So much for the nurturing instincts of a mother!

Shoving aside that murderous thought…

Today was a good day because it reiterated to me why some people refuse to leave the world of academics, either as a teacher or a student. One of the young men I coached this morning was incredibly intelligent. There must be very few pleasures in the world that come close to the kind of satisfaction one derives from coming across an absolutely brilliant, untapped mind…the sort you instinctively recognize as capable of lots of good things.

And why do some people refuse to leave the status of a student? Because student-hood automatically implies a commitment to mischief. Such as passing notes during a lecture, because you and the person sitting next to you have just discovered and agreed on who fits the tag of “The Class Bore”. And what could be more enjoyable than passing notes to each other that discuss The Bore in more and more entertaining words, all the while trying to remain undetectable to the professor as well as to other classmates?

Dear G, it was good fun today. Thanks, let’s do this again in the next class, shall we?

Colors

On February 13, 2002, an angry article of mine got published in The Pioneer, New Delhi edition. In it I ripped apart everyone who ever celebrated Valentine’s Day. I called it nearly everything that Shiv Sena/VHP etc call it but with a difference. I insisted that I don’t need a day to tell someone I love that I love him. I will do it even without Archie’s and Hallmark breathing down my neck and Delhi Times splashing every conceivable “combo” option in my face. And I did just that, I told my then boyfriend quite frequently that I loved him. Neither of us waited for VDay’s permission to tell us how to behave with one another.

Five years later, I feel somewhat differently. Valentine’s Day doesn’t make me that angry anymore although I too have loved and lost several people. To me today, Valentine’s Day is a day of stocktaking. Of not just the romantic relationship one might or might not be in. It is a day of counting blessings, of appreciating those wonderful people I still have in my life from last year, and of those that I might not next year because of a million probable reasons: distance, lack of time or energy, maybe a huge fight over an important issue or non-issue, or worse, letting something like ego come in between and transform a regular human being into something that's cold, unapproachable, and with a I-couldn’t-be-bothered-about-whether-I-have-hurt-someone stance.

Yesterday, a chance surfing on Orkut took me to a friend’s page where she had uploaded one of her favorite songs and written alongside it something to the effect “I wonder why relationships change color and eventually become colorless”. To all those of you reading this, may none of your relationships ever lose color.
So, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Dilli Door Hain

The view from the balcony adjoining my room

Grandparents, my brother Aritro, and our cousin Sinjini



My parents on July 19, 2006