Tales of travel and food with a touch of spice
“The sunlight claps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea: what are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?”
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
If this poem does melt not ur heart so very cold , then my love will die at ur doorstep never to unfold….just my thoughts, cannot dare to expand works of an artist !
O Solitude I seek thee,
As fresh rains want open fields and dancing children run home after light ,
For only you, thus, Intrigue me.
As I dive deep into thy Abyss,
Cold blue waters engulf me all around,
It’s only then that I see ALL else slip away,
And only your love surrounds ,
For that’s when you truly open up to me and I hear your sweet silent sound .
Strange as it may seem too you,
This appalling silence holds,
a thousand screams that befall,
On ears that listen and eyes that speak,
And yet they never seem to talk ,
Just walk past without a nod or smile ,
And all that’s left around in that abyss is Solitude and me .
So drowning dead and sinking to a watery grave is but obvious I need not implore ,
I wait eagerly for the cold embrace in the blue waters of my mind ,
It’s only when I am dying that I know I surely will find,
What we all wish to behold but never really find ,it’s always been there somewhere ,
Lost in the recesses of our mind ,
I fall asleep silently with death embracing that is so cold ,yet warm in Solitude’s embrace ,she , caresses my troubled soul,
Such is the love of solitude that I couldn’t resist, just had to seek n find ,
If this wasn’t true love ,my dear beloved
Please be so kind and pray tell me what is true love , that we have never found .
the last embrace
The above post was done by me last year on a lovely group called Phrase Catchers on Facebook where I post from time to time , it was written when I was in a grey period for a while ,feeling lonely in this big city and missing my old life , the image posted above is from a very, very beautifully written blog and the post it is from is so touching it made me sad … very emotional blog (http://circuschildren.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html) ….thanks for letting me use the image here Ms.Circus Princess , I am sure your blog writing was catharsis in itself. I also like how she has written a polite but firm request for her friends to respect her privacy. Read her blog it takes you on a journey …
One of the things I miss most about my life in India is the COLOUR, the colours of daily clothing for example worn by women even in the most modern of cities as it collides with the Sauvé greys and blacks of the suits that walk around. I sorely miss wearing Indian clothes and my favourite glass bangles. Moreover the whole thing where we have colour as part of our home decor is also something I really miss. I have taken a vow that each time I visit India next I shall surely buy some key pieces for placing in my flat to give it a distinctive Indian flavour, the more vibrant colourful and hard to get the object the higher will be its place of importance in my heart and home .
There are these times I miss all that I did like the zillion times I would walk into FAB INDIA with A OR P or just saunter in by myself and ogle at the lovely fabrics and the salivate over the chunky jewellery I especially love their short kurtis (tunics) and silver earrings . I love FAB INDIA clothes and mix matching them with different pieces to wear.
Long back this close pal of mine, S, told me about this blog called Rang Decor , it’s a splash of very beautiful photographs of extremely well done up homes and also awesome places , the most recent post about Kutch and how art is literally everywhere sitting silently amongst very obvious harsh weather and stark poverty is quite a lovely post to SEE , read ,feel and think !
http://rangdecor.blogspot.com/
Such are the ways I amuse myself when I feel the “I miss INDIA” Nostalgia pangs coming along .This is followed by a session of listening to old Bollywood songs on you tube , browsing through photographs of close family and friends for the millionth time and then looking outside to see an almost empty street save for the occasional bus that zips past and some cars . How I miss the sights and sounds of Bombay and Pune. I progress to making a cup of hot tea for myself and start listening to some golden oldies from the Kishore Kumar era ! Sighhh Lifeee …..
Some movies have such an impact that they make you smile somewhere deep inside , they give us hope , that kind of hope that can stir up a twinkle in the eye of even the most deprived of souls …The Shawshank Redemption is one such movie.
I cannot fathom why I haven’t seen it for all these years …
It’s the kind of movie I would see with my Father , he loves watching war movies ,old westerns and the like .When he and my mother came to visit us last year we had a lovely few weeks together. He made a list of his all time favourite films all old English awesome one really …I would love to share that list will try and find the paper where he wrote it …
We would have an early dinner and then I would download the movie on my laptop using utorrent and my parents and me would crowd around my laptop and watch it only stop if I wanted a break in between I always do, movies make me hungry errr hungrier to be honest …am always hungry 😉 My mum doses off after the first 15 minutes and wakes up after a few more and asks why so and so did this and what is happening and then dose off blissfully again , though she’s one determined person I tell you , she wouldn’t quit halfway would sit through to the end with me and daddy.
Anyway, this ritual went on for about 15 days after which my Laptop crashed due to some bug and when it was done up again it was time for them to go , the weather had changed ,it was much colder than their old bones could handle so they would turn in earlier and stay home most day.
I do miss them, but I miss my dad the most when I see such movies. I almost imagined I was curled up next to him as I was seeing this movie. Will call him tomorrow and tell him about it, of course am sure he has seen it and will have some interesting movie facts to tell me, he always does.
The following lines are ingrained in my mind forever and ever – “Hope is a Good Thing,Maybe the BEST thing and Good Things NEVER Die” – Andy from The Shawshank Redemption.
It’s a movie that will stay with me for a long long time to come ,maybe some day I too shall sit down with my kids and share such moments ….hopefully 🙂
P.S: Baba’s List of Must watch movies , family favourites at ours and anytime watchs for a LIFETIME…
*The man who knew too much – who can forget Doris Day singing “Que Sera, Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“
* Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid
* Godfather 1 &2 …. Oh Marlon Brando what he did no one ever has and no one ever can these movies and books are EPIC !
*Rear Window…Irony was I saw this when I was in bed nursing a broken leg 😉
Toblerone ….It’s not JUST another chocolate
To date this awesome pyramid shaped yummie remains the single most popular chocolate that all uncles’ aunts and doting parents get for the kids on the family from a holiday abroad.
I have very very fond memories of my dad returning from work abroad with a BEEEEEGGG bag crammed with chocolates amongst other goodies.
I am a chocolate lover and have always caved in, in the ace of temptation. Before I left Mumbai to come to London early last year , the Cadbury’s new introduction SILK was my all time fav guilty treat. I kept one stashed away in the fridge even when I stayed with my in laws for a while and my father in law and me gobbled it up turn by turn of course we had to ensure the wrapper stayed crumpled in the fridge lest the watch full eye of my sweet mil was to see how fast we were downing calories into our systems!
I found new chocolate heaven in LINDT chocolates over Christmas last year though, I must say for that few minutes when you pop a LINDT into your mouth it’s like sitting under a chocolate waterfall as the tongue is enveloped in a beautifully smooth taste and every taste bud is awake and singing out aloud in pure joy, the melting chocolate transports me into food nirvana EVERY single time J
Anyway back to the TOBLERONE, I was in the supermarket a few days back, tired after a day’s work wanted to get a nibble to satiate the rumbling in my tummy till I got home, I wandered into the chocolate aisle and there it was sitting quietly amongst the others, I for a minute thought “why something that’s gifted to me so often” .It’s then I realised that it’s actually been a really long time since any uncles or even my dad has got me one of these .
Seems a long time away in time that I was a kid or a youngster even…
So until some doting relative or parent gets me one of these I have decided to stock up on this goody for my sweet cravings and allow each bite to take me back to some happy growing up memory.
Though THE weather is now dark and grey ,
I won’t allow it my nerves to fray,
Grab my best jacket n put on my boots,
Step out in the cold n pretend I care two hoots ,
its only our spirit that keeps us going on,
So even if the road seems endless and forlorn ,
Hold ur head high up and smile
Kick up a pep in ur step till the last mile,
for life isn’t all about the big grey clouds ,
It’s how u weathered the storm that counts !
Deja Vu? Or is it my mind playing tricks with me again ?? sighh….
It’s often times nowadays that I slip out of my body and walk the streets of the city where I was born – Bombay to me and Mumbai to many . It is generally triggered by a simple series of photos that I see on FB of someone in Bombay or some poor soul like me that “lives” abroad but “walks” around in Bombay in their head .
So where am I right now ? I am sipping on a cold watermelon juice, alone , on a bright sunny afternoon , wearing a white gunji n blue denim shorts ,my hair is cut in a blunt cut style,something of a short bob like bouncy and fun , blow dried and I am looking at the hot humid and extremely vibrant Colaba Causeway and watching the usual street stalls hawking over priced goods to unsuspecting tourists, prostitues mingle with the rest of the world and try with no success to merge into the fabric of this vivid picture . Then I am walking towards the gateway of India feeling energised after my cold beverage only to sweat it all out by the time I reach but the sight and sounds of the beautiful Arabian sea , the waves crashing against the beautiful stonework take me far far away to a happy place in my head .
I turn and I am sitting at Café Coffee Day at Bandra Bandstand the wind in my hair feels wonderfull and the light spray of salty sea water hitting my face now n then makes me feel humid yet happy . I down a glass of cold cold yummy coffee topped with some marvellous crumbled cookies and attempt to scribble some thing I feel on a tissue paper , promising myself to one day make a blog ….
so finally when I am many miles away from my Bombay City and sitting in a tiny flat somewhere in London , when all the familiar sights and sounds have vanished do I make this blog come alive .
I do get these nostalgia attacks often times and each time I travel , if only in my head the busy yet beautiful streets of Bombay city and relive moments of my lovely life .
Oh yes and I must admit when I was in Pune , I used to get these nostalgia attacks too , especially when I was reading Shantaram . I do resent people who think that he exposed the dirty underbelly of Bombay , he merely stated life as it happened to him and his words, so beautiful , so graphic ,like I was watching a film maybe , why wouldn’t then I walk the streets of Bombay through his words ? Why not ? After all a good book does just that, doesn’t it ???
Someday I am also going to gift myself an i-pad or a tablet , I get these mad ideas when I am on a bus journey that I must write down , but they just turn into wisps of invisible threads and slip out of mind like a silent ghost …. and leave me feeling well, sort of like a person who is reading a gripping murder mystery and just as the end is to reveal all , the door bell rings…. and in comes a painfull neighbour who has to have a cup of TEA and one sided conversation NOW !
OH YES !And, I also get huge feelings of sorrow at not being able to shop and browse through the beautiful outlets of FABINDIA whenever I browse this wondefull blog called Rang décor, it’s a visual melange of all things India expressed in pictures and words that is simply a delight for a sore soul
So with this my dear future readers , I present to you humbly my blog , my thoughts at times totally neurotic but mine all the same .
I love attention who doesn’t ? therefore , I welcome bouquets and brickbats alike , but please desist from comments that are rude, racist ,inflammatory or else I shall give u what I call an “e-kick” and banish for evermore 🙂 serious !
I will always always attempt to give due credit if I am inspired by any material written by any blogger or photograph I use from any place – I hate anyone stealing my work and am sure those that I write from or paste from will also hate me if I don’t mention them .
My thoughts, my words , my life experiences and feelings are ALL my OWN and not borrowed , copied or lifted so therefore there is a copyright I reserve over them , ok ?
I may at times attempt to review or comment on movies , books , make up , fashion etc etc etc etc , which does not mean I get paid , if some one is MAD enough to ever do that , well I shall shout it out from the rooftop , NOT of my current rented flat inside a crumbling Victorian era building of course , why do that when London has so many TALL buildings- yes PUN intended 🙂
I also have a twitter id and am fairly technologically challenged and therefore will not be able to smarten this blog up and am under training , rather have forced myself to be trained by a rather sweet buddy of mine and my hubby’s for that matter , so if there’s any hanky panky stealing attempts , BEWARE , I shall catch u and spank ur backside with a LARGE , very large hairbrush . Humpfh !
I will use a lot of hyperlinks to better the understanding of many things I shall crib about and most times I link to Wikipedia which is an abundance of knowledge. If not the hyperlink will give due credit to the owner or writer of the information.
Phew!!!
