The Guests...

So the crowd has gone. It was a long weekend , the republic day and a "hartal" made it a super long weekend. I am exhausted cooking and cleaning for the Entire Inlaws clan. Now it is back to business as usual.

The guests over the weekend loved to sleep. Occasionally they would check if I needed help in the kitchen

I resorted to the readymade gravies and coconut pastes instead of doing it from scratch as I always do. Was a big relief.

One of the guests asked for "sambar" or some lentil curry when lunch was served. Luckily , I had some in the fridge. I do not understand how a guest can say - I need some curry other than chicken curry along with rice. I mean , isn't it rude. And there was fish fry , cutlets , veg stir fry , the usual pickles and curd ... and he wanted a "loose" curry he said.

The first day fish fry did not meet expectations. I tried my special fish fry masala with rice flour which makes the fish crisp on the outside and soft and well cooked on the inside. They consider that "uncooked" . They wanted fish to be be fried crisp till black like coal. I used to think it was a mistake , but realized that people do like it that way too. The next day I made it that way and they all loved it. I thought it tasted like a piece of burned something, could not taste fish anywhere.

They judge food by the amount of spice in it. The spicier , the merrier. Glad that I understood it , coz then i would make hot hot spicy curries . I thought the spice killed the curry , it was too spicy to get the real taste but everyone else would be happy. Great dish they would say. The husband bought some fish from the hypermarket, it was cleaned and cut . To me , the fish was starting to rot , the husband would not agree. I fried it with enormous amounts of chilly and pepper and they all loved it. I couldnt even think of tasting it . That is the magic of chilly and peppers.

I had to take Pran for skating lessons early in the morning . The guests would sleep all day . By 8 PM they were all refreshed and ready to start the day . I would be dead tired and waiting to hit the sack. Finally the last day , I apologized and asked my SIL to put dishes on sink when they were done with dinner. I had to wake up early in the morning and could not stay for a minute more.  Maybe they felt bad but I could not help it.

Now that they are gone , I am heaving a sigh of relief. Too lazy to start my office tasks. Too lazy to cook a normal meal . Too lazy , yes.

To be happy...

Yesterday one of S ‘s colleagues passed away. He was around 32 years of age , or so I think.

I cant stop thinking of it. He experienced some discomfort when he woke up and thought it was a bad stomach. When it got bad , his wife took him to the hospital which was just a few blocks away. He breathed his last before reaching the hospital. He has a cute 1 year old daughter . I could not imagine what his wife went through , they do not have family here and she and the little girl was alone till friends and family joined them a couple of hours later.

It made me want to be a better person. Even S. We were discussing later how we choose to be grumpy and irritating all the time. Why cant we live life to the fullest for now?  In a dramatic way that only girls can be , I was thinking of writing letters to my son . Kind of like a letter for each year, in case something happens to me too…

Day One - A simple day

Day One:

I have been wanting to write a post a day , for a long time now.

Starting on it today.

I have been feeling very stressed out and awful since a couple of months. I guess , the uncertainity on the work front , the need to move from here etc is adding a lot to it. I have been working from home since I returned back to India a couple of months ago. One of my good friends commented on my weight gain yesterday . She suggested that I come to office once in a while for a change in routine. So today , I went to office after long for a couple of hours. It was good to see the energetic  juniors and listen to their  silly talks.

S went to Hyderabad yesterday for another official trip. I feel guilty, beacuse I kind of felt a little relieved. When it is just me and the little one , there is less work on the cooking front . S makes me nervous in the kitchen. He thinks that he is less maintenance . To me , he judges me based on what I do.  So I try to cook and clean more when he is around to impress him or to avoid complaints or is it to prove myself. Once he realized it and gave me an earful. Still I do it. I guess it has to do with the early days , soon after our marriage when he always blamed me for what I didn’t do.

I baked a chocolate cake for Pran yesterday. The recipe called for Baking soda , I didn’t want to add it coz of Pran’s allergies. I added baking powder but the cake didn’t rise enough. But it tastes good. Fudge like. I am happy , Pran is too. 

I hope to re-plant the tomato saplings today. A while ago , we have a few tomato plants that gave us loads of tomato's. Fingers crossed on this batch too.

The post makes me realize that the day is not bad and maybe I am getting stressed for no reason at all.