My Dirty Little Secret

My friend R, who is an amazing cook and a food blogger wrote this about her Dirty Little Culinary Secret.

Most people whom I have met love travel. Long weekends excite them. Just wait for Friday and everyone begins asking about the travel plans. Many are backpackers who what to go to Leh! The other day a friend exclaimed and asked if there are people who do not like traveling. Well, me for one. The idea of traveling unnerves me and then the whole planning stuff just stresses me. While I do end up enjoying whatever little travel I have done so far, it has not yet motivated me to become a fan of traveling.

It is not the idea of the often tiresome journey that dulls me down, it is probably the fact that how will the destination be, what if we forget something, would the trip be worth etc etc that eats me up and takes away from the travel experience. I am not someone who lets go of things and decides to face it then and there and that probably defines what I think about travel too. Even while traveling, I have often counted the number of days after which I will be home. May be this is why having a baby has not changed a lot when it came to travel!

There I said it - I do not like traveling.

Waterworks!

Dear V,

This post is about me and not about you. Well, it is sort of about you because I blame it on the pregnancy hormones. Welcome to the weird family kiddo.

Love,
Amma

It does not take much for my eyes to well up, but over the years it has gotten better. But the pregnancy got better of me and I would bring on the Waterworks for the silliest things.

Once, I planned to make a particular dish (I do not cook a lot, so when I planned to cook, there must have been some solid reason behind it) and I found out that some specific ingredient was missing. What do most people do in such cases - go and buy the stuff, or ask someone to bring it for you, call the grocery guy to get it delivered and so on. What did I do? I sat down on the kitchen floor and sobbed.

I had ordered stuff online and we missed the delivery because we were outside. The delivery boy calls to inform he is at the door and I tell him we are out. Sadly, our neighbors too were not around. I ask him to give it to the security staff, who refuse to take it because of some new society policy. He tells me he will deliver it the next day. I disconnect the phone and I begin to cry - for unknown reasons in such a way that people would think I had a heartbreak. Thankfully, this happened in the car and the husband was pretty used to Waterworks by then.

Total Randomness

The past week has passed of in a blur as it has been way too hectic for me. Saying goodbye to a city and work place is hard enough, coupled with it was the pathetic bureaucracy that came along with it. Right from filling up the forms to withdraw the PF to getting an NOC for the car, we tried our best to be straightforward but ended up bribing the people involved (totally out of compulsion and against our wishes).

Leaving the largest dot com in the world was a tough call. I encountered raised eyebrows when I announced the decision to quit. There were weird rumors which said that I was joining its key rival, the big social networking giant. People who knew that I was married asked me if I was leaving because I was pregnant. People who did not know me asked me if I was getting married.  The decision to leave was made. Working there did wonders to me - I did learn so much, I got three promotions in 3 years - each resulting in a bump in my salary, I met wonderful people  - all brilliant and passionate, I I traveled abroad on work, I started saving!.  I thought that I would be crying bucket loads on my last day - but there I was, surprised at myself, giggling away with the girl gang as I said bye to each of them with a smile on my face. Perhaps the anticipation had prepared me well to be strong.

There was one phase that enjoyed thoroughly during the bye-byes. People who are not close to me at work do not know that I am married. I also do not sport any visible symbols of marriage. Therefore, when I tell them that I am moving along with my husband - there is look of shock and surprise which I get to see. Then, I tell them that I have been married for around 3 years now, that scandalizes them - one even asked me, "Bachpan mai hi shaadi ho gayi thi kya". Well, now you know why the post is called 'Total Randomness'.

There is one job that I desperately want to do but I have no idea on how to do it. I want to refine the format of all the Govt. forms to make it user-friendly. I went through hell while filling up the PF and pension forms. There were 3 lines to write your name but one tiny column to write your entire address. The column said account number - there was no clarity on whether they want your PF number or your bank account number. Also, something that annoyed me most was the column which said write husband's name in case of married women. If you are male or unmarried, you can write your father's name. Its not that I am not proud of being married. I love being married. Its just that it should be okay for the men to write their wife's name too. Also, the column needs to be parent's name and not father's name.  Its high time these things change.

There are more random thought around - I guess I'll keep them for the next post.