Unexpected celebration of our Pearl Wedding Anniversary

Here are some photos clicked  both inside and outside our house.

Since I was all dressed  up so I thought why not have a photo session too, so here we go happily clicking our beautiful day:

Kenny Rogers - You Decorated My Life - this sums up our 30 years of togetherness.

No longer a working 'girl'

 Raghav was a handsome and highly qualified young man holding a very important position in a bank. He was  the only son of  well-to-do parents hailing from a business family. He had everything a young and talented man could ask for ----- except a wife.

    Raghav was very particular that the woman he married to be a working woman even if she was not a great looker. His parents, on the other hand,  had a long list of specifications in addition to the single-point agenda that Raghav had set. So the search began for that elusive girl who would fit the bill.

  Many houses were visited , many girls were seen, and an equal number of bajies, bondas , kesaries  and coffees  were consumed and yet there was no sign of the girl in sight. If the girl was working , the parents would not approve , for she wasn't so good-looking, or not fair enough or the staus of the parents were not high enough and so on. Ironically,  when the girl had all the desirable qualities, she was the non- working type.

     The years slipped by. Poor Raghav ---- a few strands of grey hair on his head and a few extra kilos around the waist ------- slipped in, as friends and relatives pitched in to find the perfect girl for Raghav.They persuaded Raghav and his parents to be more practical and compromise just a bit on the specifications. After all, the 'Boy' also was not the same handsome young Raghav of the past. The same logic would apply to the girls too.

  Around this time , a distant cousin dug up a girl, who was fairly good- looking and was also an officer in a bank. Well-wishers advised the boy and his parents not to dilly- dally and quickly finalise the alliance, for they may not find another girl of equal merit. Also the boy was getting older. It was alright if the girl was a little short and stout. She could always wear platform heels, couldn't she ? The most important thing was that she was working woman and also decent to look at.

 Raghav and his new bride , Meena, had a wonderful honeymoon at Kodaikanal. At the end of the week,  it was time to get back to the routine grind. Come Monday morning ,  Raghav got ready for the office and dutifully offered to drop Meena at her place of work, altough her branch was quite some distance from his own.

  She seemed surprised by his offer and said " Bank? What bank? I don't have to go anywhere near a bank anymore."

 "But aren't you joining duty today? queried Raghav, taken aback.

     "Yes,  I have joined duty ---- not at the bank, but at home --- as a housewife. I have had enough of working outside. Now I wish to work only at home, raise a family and lead a contented and peaceful life. I put in my papers at the bank the day we decided to become life partners. There is no financial compulsion for me to continue as a working woman. Now, darling,  would you be a pet and drop me at the market? Vegetables are always so fresh and cheap in the mornings."

  Raghav, who was too stunned to make any meaningful response, kept mumbling incoherently, and drove the car like an automaton. The last image which froze in his mind  as he drove away from the market was that of a short woman trying to balance herself on platform heels , waving with one hand while the other hand clutched an enormous shopping basket. Some corner of his brain registered a shouted reminder " Come home early for lunch, I am making drumstick sambhar and potato curry." 

Do arranged marriages work? Opinions tend to differ.

Can love grow out of an arranged marriage? 
Absolutely, and in the same way that love can grow in romance novels from a marriage of convenience. But there's more to love than finding a suitable match. Love can grow for many reasons, from lust at first sight to friendship that develops over a long period of time. It's impossible to predict whether a union will be successful. The only two people who can make it work are the bride and groom, the hero and heroine of their own story.

I am sure all South Indians would  love this blog, and may even be able to relate to it. It happened to someone known to me years ago, but believe me, it is still happening and there is nothing really wrong in it.

Of husbands and sinks ( written many years ago : thought of sharing some of my anecdotes with my fellow bloggers)

 It was one of those days when everything goes wrong. I overslept,and could not prepare the breakfast and lunch I had planned because of a longish power-cut. Try depending on th e Karnataka Electricity Board - you are doomed for the day. To cook something on the spur of the moment can drive you crazy.

  I had a fight with my husband the previous evening, which left me cursing him all night till sleep overtook me. I was naturally in no frame of mind to tackle the additional problems that fate (and KEB) had dumped on me.

   Seeing my husband going about his daily boring routine  without being in the least affected by the goings-on around him was enough to send my BP soaring.  He can remain calm even if the roof fell on him.

   While I was cooking,  another part of mind was  busily plotting,  considering various ways of getting him to lose his cool: with my mind brimming with evil thoughts, I cleaned the vegetable peels and bent down to throw them into the dust-bin near the sink. While unbending,  I hit the left side of my face,  near the eye,  against the hard granite edge of the sink. I felt a searing pain for a second and could feel a bump coming up.  I immediately applied some ice,  and went about my work.

   My son came to the kitchen and asked, why the spot under my eye was so black and swollen.  Although it still hurt,  I thought  that the ice had taken care of the swelling. I looked in the mirror,  and was shocked  to see the bruise. It was blue - black  and  a little swollen,  as if I had been bashed by someone.

     Oh God!  How was I to face the outside world with this face? What would people think?

    "Patidev"  (the high and mighty husband) commented that apparently God had taught me a lesson. He had that smug look on his face. Naturally,  he was mighty pleased that without any effort on his part I got what he would himself have wished to give.

 I spent a few hours, trying various ways to make my face look presentable. The swelling subsided but the bruise  refused to budge and stayed for atleast another 15 days. I resigned myself to my new battered look.

  People gave me strange looks--men looked up to my husband,  during our walks together.  Probably they were  thrilled and impressed, that my husband could do something about which,  they could only dream.  Some women looked at me with pity,  while some shot looks of contempt. I found the whole thing very amusing.  People assume so many things but the reality is so different.

    During one of my weekend hobby classes my friends kept looking at me. I thought they were admiring my good looks,  (waiting for compliments to come flying on my way) for in the meantime I had totally forgotten about my black eye. One of the bolder ones asked me , "what happened to your eye,  Rama?"---reality struck me again in my face.

 

I explained to them how I hit my face against the sink. I jovially shared with them, what I felt people were reading into this. They nodded agreeably, cracking their own jokes, saying they really believed my story. The majority seemed to derive vicarious pleasure in believing the husband had done it to me rather than an inanimate sink.

I am beginning to wonder if that could be really true. Is it possible I had a temporary memory blackout at the time of impact?

  Can anybody please tell me what really happened?

Recipe for Palak (Spinach) Paneer (Cottage cheese)

View from the top

A big bowl of curd rice

Spinach  with cottage cheese,  Indian Bread, Plate of onion rings,  Yoghurt, and Curd rice and Raw Mango pickles.

Ingredients:

1. Spinach 1 small bunch

2. Tomatoes 2 small ones

3. Ginger half an inch

4. Garlic 1 whole pod

5. Onion 1 small size

6. Green chillies 2 or 1 according to taste

7. Indian curry powder/ Garam masala

8. Any vegetable oil 5 to 6 teaspoons

9. Aniseeds for tempering

10.Half tsp. Turmeric powder

11. Salt to taste

12. 250 gms. cottage cheese, to be cut into small cubes ( not too small about an inch)

Method:

Wash and cut spinach, tomatoes, and ginger roughly

put them together in a microwave  bowl add a little water if needed, and microwave it for about 4- 5 mins.

After they have cooled down puree them in the food processor..

Take it out and keep it aside.

Next cut onions into fine pieces, slit the green chillies, if you want it hot, you can cut 1 green chilly very finely.

Crush garlic and peel them, chop them or just leave them crushed.

Heat oil in a pan, once it is hot, drop some crushed aniseeds about 1 tsp. into the oil, wait for it to spultter.

Add onion and keep frying it for about 2 mins, don't let it become brown, keep the heat in simmer position.

Now add the Indian curry powder/ Garam masla and fry for a second, then add the garlic, fry for about a minute(keep the heat always in low). 

Now add the paste of spinach, tomato and ginger to it, also add the cottage cheese, stirring gently the whole mixture, and cook for about 3 to 4 mins.

If it seems too thick add very little water, allow everything to blend well together for few seconds.

Now your Spinach with cottage cheese is ready to be served.

Serving:

It is a dish that can be served with anything like:

1. Indian Bread, Pita Bread, or even with your regular Brown/ White Bread 

2. It can be served with White or Brown Rice.

4. You can cut raw onion into rings and sprinkle some salt and pepper, with a dash lemon juice.

This recipe is especially written for my friend Jerry Carlin, who wanted all his blogger friends to post some interesting recipes. I am sure it is the most easiest dish to prepare, and also tastes very good.

 Your feedbacks are most welcome.

BTW the curd rice is must for most South Indians, we always like to finish our lunch / dinner with curd rice and pickles.

A box full of kisses ~~ Author Unknown

The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Daddy."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses... from our children, family members, friends, and God. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.

Gandhi Jayanti : 2nd October

Gandhi advised his followers to "become the change you want to see in the world".

We are always thrashing out advises, as what can be changed in our society, in our country , in our spouses, in our children etc., but do we ever pause and think, the change we want to see in others can begin with us. It is so simple when we change in our own small way, we would automatically find changes happening in others, and also in our immediate surroundings.

Every year we celebrate the birthday of  Gandhi : but how many of us follow his principles, of being the change we want to see in the world?

He was the light that illuminated our country for so many years, and  the light is still there, maybe gone a bit dim, but the spark is still alive, and if we are willing to see it, it will give solace to our troubled hearts.

For the light that shone on this country was no ordinary light : it was the light of the Mahatma, the living truth, and the eternal man who was with us, and would always be with us with his eternal truth reminding us of the right path, nudging us away from error, showing this ancient country  called 'India', the way to a bright, modern and secular future.

So on this day  let us again pledge to bring the change within ourselves!