If you love the sub ... read on

The subway sandwich is a favourite of mine. And only one of them - the veggie delite . I learnt that it is best to leave our Indian items out of a sub – after all it is a western concept and paneer tikka is a definite NO- NO.

You should think it would be easy just walking into the sub outlet and ordering a veg sub. I had the most terrible experience . I managed the choice of the bread. Then came the veggies, and I wanted my money’s worth, I had all that was displayed, followed by the sauces. The experience almost put me off sandwiches for a year till the younger one took charge of my order . And I was happy once again.

We walked in a couple of days ago. There was a small group that just came in. And they were rather demanding and very sure of what they wanted. One said honey oats , another was emphatic about cold meat, her companion wanted exactly the opposite, please warm the sub for me, no olives, more jalapenos and so on. I was flummoxed. There I stood tongue tied, the daughter had just received a call and she kind of signalled me to go ahead. But no, I stepped back and allowed three others ahead of me, and waited till she finished and came along , and in seconds I was handed a delicious sub which I enjoyed with a chocolate cookie and iced tea.

I realise that I am not the only one feeling intimidated at a subway outlet. I found a whole wiki-how page devoted to ordering a sub, and they seemed to agree that it was a complicated process. I feel better already.

Some tips I picked up at http://www.wikihow.com/Order-a-Subway-Sandwich
Decide the bread, meat, veggies before approaching the counter.

Bread choices - Bread:
-Whole Wheat-Honey Oat-Garlic-Italian-Italian Herbs & Cheese.

Whole Wheat and Honey Oat are both made with wheat bread. Italian, Garlic, and Italian Herbs & Cheese are all made with white bread. "Italian" is they claim just a fancy word for "white bread." The bread is made by them. (I wonder if that is how it is in India too) And you can either have a six inch or footlong.

Be specific about the veggies you want – more lettuce please, or less olives, or go easy on the cucumber….
Vegetables
-Onions-Lettuce-Tomatoes-Pickles-Pepperonis-Jalapenos-Green Peppers-Cucumbers-Olives

Cheese:
-white American-cheddar-pepper jack

At our sub outlets I am told they ask you if you want extra cheese - be prepared to pay more if you have taken the extra. It may hold good for other ingredients too.

At this stage I think you need to tell them if you want to warm the sub. Warming of the sandwich is recommended if you have wet items like meatballs in them. The do say you can roast a teriyaki.

Sauce:
Go easy on the sauces. I had a terrible time. Mustard ma'am ?– sure ,why not? – I remember how I loved having mustard sauce with sausages when I was a kid ( way before I turned vegetarian), and sweet onion? or whatever – I love onions and figured it would be good too, – yes some more of that please, and so on, till I had a heavy sub handed over . Ugh!

Choice of sauces -
-Light mayonnaise-Regular mayonnaise-Mustard-Dijon mustard-Honey mustard-Ranch dressing-Sweet Onion Sauce-Chipotle Southwest Sauce-Barbecue Sauce

Meats for the carnivorous

Salami-Pepperoni-Ham-Turkey-Roast Beef-Bacon-Roasted Chicken Breast-Teriyaki Chicken-Steak

And of course if you wish the Salt, pepper, oil, vinegar

Phew! That is a lot, and I should think the term sandwich artist coined by them is quite appropriate for the guy at the counter. I guess a few visits and I would be all set to order my sub on my own.

Read this link too if you want to be a smart one at the subway, some of which has been quoted above http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1019155

And you could find a clip on YouTube too.

India at the Oscars

A lot has been written about the Oscars. Like an India-Pakistan cricket match, the whole of India must have had their TV sets on to watch the ceremony live.

So much of India at the Kodak theater.

I was not particularly enamoured by Slumdog Millionaire , though I did appreciate it for the fine editing and piecing of different sequences, but otherwise I thought it was the same old story and more of a fantasy than the Hindi movies we are used to. .

I remember before the touted success of the movie, I had picked up the book at the library ( since the title Q&A appealed to me - and besides I am a quiz -show- fan) but having glanced at the brief description of the story on the jacket, thought it was not my kind of book. Ever since the movie was released, the book has disappeared off the rack and in circulation. I do want to find out how closely the script has adhered to the original.

The gory details that were part of the movie reminded me of a movie my parents had discussed when I was young. - younger than 10 I should think. The movie was 'Mondo Cane' It horrified my mother in particular, and some of it was shared with us. The movie showed the maiming of people to serve as beggars. And it had I believe, rather vivid pictures of blinding subjects, chaining the limbs in order to stunt and handicap the person.

I recollected this discussion after seeing Slumdog and found a few references on google.

Mondo Cane (A Dog's World; also a mild Italian curse) is a 1962 documentary film by Italian film makers that was made about cultural practices in the East and was mainly intended to shock or surprise the audiences in the West. The movie was a huge success. It seemed to have been dubbed a shockumentary in those times. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. The movie's theme song, "More," was in 1964, nominated for Best Song. The film's video packaging states it won an Oscar, although it was only nominated. The film started a fad known as "Mondo film".

There seem to be few similarities between Slumdog and Mondo Cane.

For whatever shortcomings the movie had for me, I guess they were forgotten and it was a great moment when two Indians received Oscars. A R Rahman has produced better music, and so it was not really a great song that got an Oscar, but he truly deserved it for the music he is known for. In my opinion, Illaya Raja and A R Rahman are two music composers who deserve international acclaim.

The Oscars, The Booker. The Indian media will talk about it for some time and understandably too. Until now, we took pride when an NRI scientist won a Nobel, but this is a different story altogether.

If it was not for political interferences we could have duplicated this feat in the sports arena too. Maybe we will soon, despite that ....

All the world's a ....

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts

I shall dwell on that later.

I went to the concert where sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan played along with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra . It was a nice evening.

My ears are not attuned to Western Classical music. And personally, I cannot listen to Western classical music over the radio, the music is soft at parts and then suddenly very loud ... yet I have realised that I like watching the musicians play live and that is when I truly appreciate the effort that goes into the performance. The coordination of many instruments on stage has me enthralled.

Since it was a music fusion of sorts there was also a striking difference in the two styles. The Indian duo of sarod and tabla players came to the stage with just their music instruments and tuning tools. The sarod maestro faced the stage and respectfully covered his foot that faced the audience with a shawl. The westerners sat in a semi circle while the conductor had his back to the audience. Their music sheets all kept ready. Western Classical music, I learn, has a very disciplined structure while Indian classical music involves more improvisations done spontaneously during the performance.

The conductor has always fascinated me. What did he actually do? The Western musicians at any rate had their sheets which they dutifully turned as they played along. At previous performances, I had observed that the musicians frequently looked up from their notes at the conductor. In this performance however, they did not seem to do that at all. They required no cue from the conductor and played to perfection.

Soon after the concert I logged online to have a better understanding of the role the conductor had in the orchestra. And from what I read, it seems that he was not just there to wave his hands about. Conductors communicated the directions to performers. They set the tempo and get the act together. They choose the compositons. They need to have a deep understanding of the basic elements of musical expression, and the music instruments that make up the orchestra. The wave and smaller movements, the flow of the hands all have something to convey to the musician. The conductor has to learn the entire score while the individual musicians need to master just their pieces. He would have to know precisely when each instrument would join in or fade out. Besides he was the public face of the group .

A very important role indeed.

In the larger picture ... in a philosophical vein .... Is the world a concert ( apologies to Shakespeare) and are we the players . And the conductor ?

I have edited this part here. The younger one who read the post in my presence felt that it was just not me - and I kind of agreed with her. Abrupt as it may be..

Are you turning into a 'bonsai'

The man is reading the book 'The Case of the Bonsai Manager' by R Gopalkrishnan. I have attempted to read some of these books on Management, and generally do not go beyond the first chapter. Most of them are so theoretical and also, I believe that I have no managerial skills. But out of curiosity I did pick up this book and read the first couple of pages - I still have not gone beyond them - as I have paused to write this post!!

For one, I have never been a great fan of Bonsai. Creating a bonsai is an art and an difficult one at that requiring a great deal of patience and care. But I have always held that stunting the natural growth of a plant to create a miniature is a cruel practice.

The author, in the introduction to this book warns managers not to be like the stunted plants and writes that in the absence of intuition or its adequate use, one turns into a constricted manager.

An interesting thought, that makes me feel that this might be a book that is different from the 'Who Moved My Cheese' kinds. And even if it fails to hold my interest, it has made an impact. It has made me think that the term 'Bonsai Manager' can be applied to my life. Or even yours.

Just don't be a 'bonsai'. It may be a work of art. But it would mean that your growth is restricted and stunted. Do not allow anyone to restrict your growth and nor should you allow your thinking to be narrow. Allow yourself to branch out. Grow like the California Redwood or the lovely Banyan Tree.

TYPTW

Does this seem like a Bollywood movie? Remember DDLJ? Well, TYPTW is Take Your Parents to Work . Some of the interesting concepts that HR groups in companies come up with. And of course, like a Hindi movie, I did go into flashback mode.

I remember the first day of school for the kids. It is always a very significant day for most parents - when the elder one went to school, surprisingly she shed no tears - Actually, I think our eyes were misty . The younger one, it was easier, we always had this feeling that the sister was there to take care, and she lived up to her role very well.


So, it began, all the trips to school, for the parent-teacher meet, the sports day, the annual day. And somehow the school had this uncanny knack of holding an important event on a day most inconvenient for the parents. But since we felt responsible, we put aside our work and made sure we were there to cheer them as they took part in the sack race, the spoon or lemon race, or their march past. The annual day used to be the worst. It was also unfortunate that their act was always towards the end and we faithfully went for all these till one such day, as we sat sweating and squirming in the uncomfortable seating that was provided, we realised, that our elder one's role in the particular play was that of a tree and with all the heavy makeup we could really not identify which tree she was! Slowly our interest in these programmes began to wane, and we did attended fewer of them, much to the disappointment of the younger one.


Well, anyway we did our best to be a part of their growing up years. Then came the time when the elder one completed her education and took up a job. And in a well known MNC. We were proud to watch the professionalism creep in. We were fortunate that company she worked at, organised a Family Day. Once again, we ensured that we finished work as soon as we could ( this time the scene was a little different, we had our own enterprise, there was no application for leave!!), and we set off to her workplace. The office was nothing like the places we had worked at! The ambiance so totally different. And like us there were so many families that went around. Our daughter sat at her desk, and enacted a bit of her daily role, while we gazed so proudly, just like all the other parents that day. And we went around with her as she showed us the breakout area , the canteen, the gym and so on... she had come a long way from the time my father had prepared her for the admission test for the school, all his efforts as he went on hhhh, hhhh, hhhh to make her get her to pronounce the letter 'h' and all she could muster was 'orse' instead of horse.

I do think the TYPTW programme is an interesting concept. A little peek into their adult lives, when we realise happily how they have developed into responsible adults. Our concern for them would never end. But it also signifies the time for us to get on with our lives as we had before they were born!

PS: And I had a double bonus too, when I saw the son-in-law at his place of work. He showed the wife and me around in his inimitable style!

The weight of recession

I am not talking about the economic impact of recession. I am hardly the expert on such serious matters. The focus of this post is what is being refered to as the 'recession pounds'. Weight watching - now that is my subject. On second thoughts, who said I am not an expert on serious matters, such a 'weighty issue'?

As feared the recession has sent costs of products spiralling upwards. Prices of food seems to have touched a new high. It is therefore inevitable that citizens are reaching out for products that suit their wallets, and in most cases, the highly refined energy dense foods, those with the unhealthy cholesterol levels are lower priced as compared to the healthy but relatively expensive foods such as fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and whole grains. It has already been seen that the fast food giant McDonalds is showing a 'healthy' growth by sales of their not so healthy food.

This will probably reflect in weight gain and higher proportion of obese people. Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle suggests the following which makes good sense. He says, "The answer lies in affordable but nutrient-rich foods such as ground beef, beans, milk, nuts, cheese, carrots, potatoes, canned tomatoes, soups, and rice," calling it "a diet for a new Depression." Of course, coupled with healthy cooking methods.

Eat healthy. It has long term benefits. A feel good factor when you look at your reflection and lower medical bills.

PS: Under the guise of this post I hope to pass off what is generally termed 'nagging' as good advice!! Or am I the only one who thinks so?

Present Tense

I read this article in the Business Line supplement today by TT Srinath, of new approaches to personal growth. And what actually held my interest is the Zen story that the writer quoted which has always been a favourite of ours. It is being reproduced here - Two monks, an older and younger man were once walking down a road. They chanced on a pretty lady who was attempting to cross a puddle. The senior monk carried her over the puddle and put her down. The monks continued their journey and for over an hour the young monk did not speak to his senior. An hour later the young monk admonished the elder monk chastising him for having carried a woman. The elder monk replied, “I dropped her one hour ago but you still seem to be carrying her.” The burden of the past had trapped the young monk.

In this article, the writer exhorts us to live in the present. He says one should live only for the moment, without carrying any baggage from the past or thinking about the future. In this manner the person is responding to his/her feelings and experiences a sense of freedom. Not burdened with the past and no demands of the future. Living in the present keeps one focused on what is happening right then. He says even in the most difficult situation focus on the right of the moment, think of the positive side even if the present is not exactly encouraging. This way, you get the needed confidence and end up appreciating the situation. He says Living in the present has the potential to be a satisfying growing experience, one that flows naturally from moment to moment. The more we succeed in this task, the more human we become

Sounds very encouraging and makes sense as you read. But does not work all the time. It is said that only the sages could meditate keeping the mind blank. It is a task so humanly impossible. I have tried my hand at meditating. It has never worked. For me, a blank wall is my time machine. It can transport me back in time to being a 5 year old ( I don't think I can go beyond that!!) and then fast-forward to playing with my grandchildren. But living for the moment, when all I probably have to do is walk into the kitchen to make a meal, is simply not my cup of tea. At least to make mundane tasks more interesting, one has to let the mind wander.

It is of course, sane advice, but not really practical. Good to read, appreciate, interesting article to relate if you want to seem wise. Living for the moment works when the going is good. But I doubt if any human has a tight rein over the mind . We learn from the mistakes of the past, and also perhaps by dreaming of the future, work to make the dreams happen, and that makes us what we are.

It would perhaps make more sense to say that we should be grounded to the present, even when we retrace our steps into the past, or wander into the future.It is only then that we can enjoy life in total.

Going Native

We joke with the elder one that she has not picked up an accent even after 9 months of being in London, unlike some who speak with a drawl even after a short vacation.

We Indians are an adaptable lot and pick up ways of the West in a jiffy. To think that the term 'going native' was an expression during the colonial period and referred to the people who forgot the ways of their home country and started to behave like the natives - ‘going native' was understandably considered a derogatory term in those times.

People have to adapt when they move and live amidst different cultures. I do not fall in the category. In fact, so deeply rooted am I, that I have been in the city for half a century, but alas, cannot boast of speaking the local language or my native tongue well enough. Which is a shame.

It all began when we were started school. The Christian missionaries were considered the best in imparting education, and the Convents the best schools to attend .And so we ( my brothers and I) found ourselves admitted to these schools. I was in class 2 and did speak a smattering of English. The teacher advised my parents to speak to us in English at home so that we could improve our spoken language.It soon got to be a habit that was difficult to break . In time I think my father noticed that we were not too comfortable in our mother tongue and there was a time when he refused to answer us if we spoke to him in English. Sadly, this was a rule that was not strictly enforced and at vacations when the extended family would meet, we did manage to communicate speaking the native tongue haltingly but with long pauses to gather our thoughts and grope for the right word . In the process, not just with the mother tongue, but with other Indian languages as well, we realised that one was thinking in English and translating as we conversed. This was quite disastrous and led to a great deal of amusement ( since syntax greatly differs in other languages!) I regret now that I did not simultaneously learn languages other than English, which was sad considering that my dad was a polyglot and could speak and write several languages.

I miss speaking my mother tongue, for I have none to talk to. It would have helped me connect to my childhood.

I do think, even if it is not to connect to our roots, that we should make an extra effort to speak the mother tongue at home with the hope that the children pick up the language.

Do 'go native', it is essential to survive in the country you have chosen to live, but it would probably make you a complete person if you can occasionally connect with the country where you were born.

Hello 2009

Another year. Somehow the posts here were few and far between the last few months . Hopefully that is a thing of the past.

We hope to see the elder one this year, something to look forward to .

However, this year the younger one will move farther away where her new job will take her, not really something to look forward to.

But it means one step in the journey as she takes off to lead her life independently. Someone remarked that you have to let them go. One would think that the severing of the umbilical cord occurred when the baby is born. But a mother ( and the father too!) would know it never really took place. It is foolish to think it did!

With these profound thoughts, we move into the new year. Hello 2009!

Thumb-Indexing ?

Published in The Hindu.

From the window

Was taking this picture of the flowers on the tree just outside the bedroom, and got a bonus when the bird perched on one of them for just a few seconds!

Yet another attack...

What is there to be said over and over again, when we are faced with a situation that is becoming so frequent? It is so disturbing. So many innocent people killed in a senseless attack. Is there any solution. When will our politicians stop bickering and take some constructive action? Do we tackle terrorism or the corrupt politicians? Who is worse?

A Purpose to Life

I am reading this book –The Hungry Tide by Amitava Ghosh – have just finished 140 pages of it. But I like what I have read. The author has this beautiful style of writing and even brings detailed descriptions to life. One of the characters in the book realises that in the Sunderbans of Bengal, she has gathered enough material to pursue her research which would probably keep her going for many years. Not any kind of earth shattering breakthrough, but data that would be significant enough to give her something to carry on with a purpose ‘It would be enough; as an alibi for a life. It would do; she would not need to apologise for how she had spent her time on this earth.’

So beautifully put. I like that. Having a meaningful existence. An alibi for a life.

It is good to forget sometimes!!

I forgot!!

Don't be upset with that .... unless the person has forgotten it is your birthday or anniversary!!

An article in Mint states that neuroscientists say forgetting is crucial to the efficient functioning of the mind, to learning, adapting and recalling more significant things!!

I guess you could liken the brain to the computer. If one is to keep all the files, pictures, songs, movies... and continue to add more without deleting what is not required, the system will definitely slow down. Here, one could back up on a CD or add more memory but alas, this is not the case with the human brain. It is thought that if one has to remember all that has happened and store it , it could possibly drown you in a sea of inefficiency.

It is true that unless an event has made a lasting impression on the brain it probably would not remain in the memory. Trying to remember something that has been forgotten may revive some impressions and like a jigsaw puzzle may have the pieces, but in the wrong places!!

Most people fail to register all information at a time. In an experimental process when respondents were asked to focus on a particular activity, other happenings in the same sphere went unnoticed - a phenomenon labeled as “change blindness”.

Forgetting, strangely is a very active process, although subconscious. As the brain stores a small piece of information, it is at the same time erasing large amounts of irrelevant matter so that it can free brain power for more important issues. Mundane, every day matters are not considered important to be stored.

So, if there is an event you want to remember, ensure that you keep a journal with atleast some tab to associate it with. Photographs are also memory jogs.

If you have to appreciate why it is important to forget, I would need to quote James McGaugh one of the world's leading experts on how the human memory system works, who says Remember that forgetting can be very useful, : “If you used to go out with Bob and now you’re married to Bill, you want to be able to say, ‘I love you, Bill.’ That’s why forgetting is important.”

Moral: Remember to forget and do not forget to remember. And you have to remember what to forget and at the same time not forget what you should remember. Good luck!

Two is an odd number!!

Ah.... it is just the two of us at home and it is odd that even when 1+1 is two, life is not that simple. It did not seem so 27 years ago . The local kirana store supplied even 50 gms of whatever you wanted to buy. And shopping bags were lighter to carry. Now, one is drawn to the big supermarkets that have sprung up in each neighbourhood. All fine, considering the ambience, the variety on offer, the bargains and discounts. But shopping for two suddenly has become difficult. With the buy one get one free offers, another pack that screams 33% more , buy super pack and save and so on... we find ourselves stocked with food that lasts and lasts and getting stale with storage. But on the flip side, one discovers in the process you can overlook the use within 5 days of opening the pack which is probably the only hope for the manufacturers to push their sales and these opened packs last for upto a fortnight!!

I look longingly at the freshly baked bread loaf, draw in the flavours and walk on. When at times I succumb, I regret soon enough when the bread no longer is fresh as it languishes in the refrigerator.



Till I find a solution ....

Those school girl days...

Now, that is a long, long journey back in time. It all started when a classmate of mine tracked me down last week, after she found my brother on Facebook. It helps to have had an unusual surname. And I dashed off a mail to another classmate - RG - from class 2. ( strange to think that she is probably among the very few who have known me now, for over 45 years!!). And we started off on this nostalgic trip. She accused (:-) ) me of being the teacher's pet (Class 2 again) while she was harassed about her curly hair!! I had forgotten all about it. Teacher's pet? I am not too sure about that, but now that she brought it up, I do recollect that I was often asked to come and stand before the class and turn around so that the group would see how neatly dressed I came to school!! If only she saw me now! And strangely, all of a sudden I remember the class room so well.

We also had this so called secret group that we formed. Why 'secret' is something which baffles me. I guess it was the influence of the Enid Blyton books that we read. We scraped our forehead and had a nice gash (just the 6 of us who belonged to this 'secret group') which smarted for days. That was about all we did as our secret activity. And I remember the horrible sports teacher who slapped me. And the needlework teacher who cut my sample after getting the stitches wrong . I hated that class.

Ah well, those were the days. I am glad they are over. I still shudder when I think of some of the teachers. But for the few friends who keep in touch ... I am grateful. And I hope we have many, many occasions to meet.

I'll Huff and I'll Puff.....

Each morning I have vowed to huff and puff and get in shape. Our exerbike cum elliptical is the newest addition to the clutter in the house. After years of cajoling I finally got a serious piece of exercising equipment in the house if you discount the skipping rope, the weights and the hoop. So to ensure that the activity is carried out in real earnest I am ready in ( almost total) exercise gear , timer, mp3 player. Well, so far so good. It has been a month. The first day on the bike seemed quite a disaster. Aching knees and creaking bones ( from total inactivity for more than a couple of months) seemed to have taken a toll on the stamina factor and I could not get beyond two minutes of easy cycling and elliptical. And well, slowly and at a steady pace it has been brought upto 15 minutes. Hopefully the enthusiasm will continue. Hopefully I will get into shape. And I have to ensure that the bike will not finally end up as a clothes stand!! I could do with some encouragement too.

Gangireddula Vadu

The rather jarring music and the barking of the neighbour's dog had me scurrying for the camera and I managed to capture the brightly dressed rather emaciated ox from the window of our 3rd floor home. That accounts for the criss-crossing of wires which I could not avoid. The gangireddula is the ox that is supposed to be trained to bow and move ( I could not see all that unfortunately). And one is supposed to feed the ox with the hand so that it licks the food and thereby change the lines on your palm and your destiny. So it is said.

Interesting. Wonder how long these folk arts will last. And how many would support them.

Exam time once again

The tone and irritation that creeps into the younger one's conversation is an inkling that she is burdened with some assignment or the exams are approaching. And with appropriate comments about how badly life is treating her.
I read this little poem in Young World ( and you may ask, why do I read the Young World!! - I generally glance through it!) by Chintan Girish Modi

Off the Mark (title)

I always wonder
why this report card
looks like a long math sum

It tells you nothing

about the games I missed
to finish homework

the pictures at the back of my notebook

and the poems I wrote to stay awake.

( I found this little poem very realistic!! I wonder how many of you feel that way too!) Whenever I pack my daughter's books each semester for safe keeping, I find little doodles, poems, messages scrawled all over the pages). In years to come, when she glances through the books, each page will have a story to tell!

It's been some time...

It has been some time since my last post. I am surprised too. It's not as if there is nothing to write about.

There has been some excitement too in this sleepy city of ours. We had a big bird that made an appearance. The huge A 380 which flew low over the city and parked itself for less than a day at the Aviation Expo. We have this vantage view from the huge glass window of our office. For an aircraft that big, it hardly made any sound.

Also. considering the fact that in the span of 17 days, I have been on two trips out of the city, attended three weddings and an engagement ceremony, met a number of friends and relatives, read some interesting books, visited some new malls and played umpteen games of online scrabble. So much happening and no post?

A brief lull. I'll be back.....