Reinventing the emotion called Love..........

Why does love fade away when everything is happening as planned? Why does love require constant assurance that it is always present between two people?.......... Why is Mr.Love so confused and requires constant morale boost up?


I have found love in different people in different ways and also the ways to express them........... I found love in my mom, dad, Ashok, Anup, my friends........ and the way of expression differs from one person to another..... But when we are surrounded by love around us in these forms, why the dialogue comes out in a second when we are hurt " No one loves me......." or " You don't love me anymore....."... I remember me saying it to my brother so many times when he was angry on me or when we had fight........ Why do we always need to be assured that person loves us and is not going away from you or hurt you?..........


I heard love fades away when you are always in presence of the person whom you expect to love, you start finding ways to drift apart and have a time of yours, person starts becoming irritated in ways you would have never imagined, the likes becomes more of dislikes............ But then my very next question to such people is,  was their love based on conditions and blind only to bind itself to what it sees? Why cant one also enjoy the unexpectedness of the emotion called Love? 


When a girlfriend cries of emotion that her boyfriend got a gift, thats okay for him...but if she is basically an emotional girl and keeps crying on every small thing, it becomes irritating for same guy............ The boy and girl would have all the energy and the adrenaline rush to see each other after work when they are dating or just engaged to each other but post marriage, guy or gal would think Ah! same face every day.......


Wasn't these expected to happen? Yes, but why then the denial from the heart?That would mean that love was just conditional....  Amongst so many relations in life, true relations are ones with your family... your dad, mom, brother,sister, husband......... No matter how good you are, you do for others its just not appreciated........ When some one does something good for other, least expected is a smile on face or a word or two in appreciation..... Thats would be the only motivation to do but if things go sour or bad between the same two people, why does all the good deed done, become a give and take relation? "I did this for you...so what I did that for you "........


I believe true love does not fade away with time,but it can only get stronger...yes, the surface gets little junky but feeling always is more stronger.......You never hurt anyone if love is for true........ You would recreate or reinvent the magic to make the other person happy.... As told by my wise friend Shraddhu, If husband has become a couch potato after marriage, just plan something nice to get him off his butt and that silly couch...... go for candlelight dinner, unplanned movies. a gym together.... If mom is upset and sad, help her get on her feet,find some work which she really wanted to do......... If dad is boggled down with some issues, have a talk with him and then enjoy a movie of Charlie Chaplin.......... 


It just about how you keep reinventing the way you want to express, that you love the person and also that it wont fade away... But most importantly, you need to love one person the most so that you can keep going with others, and that love is for YOURSELF.....

My Kanadaka Ajji.............

When I am emotional , all the good and bad things which happened to me,comes rushing at me and hit me big time, like a car hits a roadblock! I get happy for no reason and sad for reasons I know truly have had impact on me........One such memory is of my Kanadaka ajji (Ajji who wears spectacles)
My Kanadaka Ajji....... My mom's mom (maternal grandmother) is one of the person who has a big impact on my life... She would call me, mom, my masi (chimmi) as "Ammi" and call Ashok and Hari as "Appu".She was like Ma Annapurne (Goddess of food).No one had ever left hungry after going to her home.No one can even compete her culinary skills, her perfection and her extra touch she would have, which would make a simple supper super special. Hearing the news of our arrival for vacations, she would be prepared with home made Kodballe, Chakli, Rave laadu, kobari mithai (khobari wadi). She took good care of everyone when we would be there,especially my dad.Though she was shy, she would enjoy the jokes and actions my dad would do, to make her understand. But no matter what my dad said jokingly, she would stand by my  mom's side always... 

Me and Ashok hugging Ajji... Pic taken in Mumbai

Me and Ashok having pillow fight... Ajji laughing on us and saying, "Ammi look at them"

                                                                                                                                                               Ajji was deaf, she could not hear anything. But that did not stop her from being the perfectionist she was. She could do all things which even normal person could not do sometimes. If I said I would be coming at 6.00 pm, she would be ready, with opened door at 5.45 pm... She would come to the gate, go inside the house...she would easily get worried if I was late by even 2 mins. She used to like everyone to be at home and enjoy however they wanted to. She would be a crime reporter for us. Since she used to reada lot of paper,she would tell us which area what crime was reported. Also she would ask me and my cousin sister to get back home early before dark... She would be scared and she would love to say "Ee desha sari illa" (meaning this land is not good). Sometimes, when we got bored staying at home, she would give my mom some money and ask to go for movies and name few of suggestions too....

At dinner time,sometimes she would make us all ,including elders, sit in a circle, and hand feed us the food (in kannada we call it "kai tutthu"). Extra care taken towards me since I do not like ghee and everyone did. She would always proudly show everyone the casserole I and Ashok bought her when she had come to Pune.We had got that so that she could keep her ragi balls (ragi mudde) in it.

Once my mom wanted to surprise my granny by simply showing up on door without prior intimation (granny would be well informed of our schedules,when we would be coming, when we would be going,etc). The picture still so clear in front of my eyes, my mom hid behind me and when granny came in the room, she was surprised and she ran to my mom, like the baby runs towards its mom after putting its first steps..

After settling down in Bangalore for a while, and getting decent pay from my second work, I had asked my mom to buy a new saree for ajji, she liked narayan peth sarees, famous in Pune... She had this fantastic selection of sarees and would prefer always cotton sarees since they were comfortable to her... She was like a  princess in her own rights,we used to tease her as " Muru Tukadda Rajkumari" meaning a princess who would weigh just as much as 3 flowers of mogra and anything beyond that, would become hurting to the the body.... My mom informed me that saree was green in colour, one of my ajji's fav colour and i could imagine her happiness in eyes.. For her, it was not a mere increase in count of number of sarees she had, but the proudness that she would get when she touched the fabric, enjoy the emoition attached to it that her grandchild has got something for her. I was ecstatic that this would be my first gift to her after I had got job in ANZ.

Mom arrived and so did the saree..but there was a little change in the scenario..... I could not see anything in my ajji's eyes since her eyes had closed for ever... I was in shock and could not believe that she had passed away.. Grief had surrounded us everywhere... I just kept the saree on her before she went away physically from my eyes forever.......

Her presence, her grace, her kindness, her love for everyone would be the one thing I will carry with myself to grave.... But I learnt from the experience that, Who knows what would happen in future...if you want to do something for someone, do it immediately..... and ever since I also started following it.

Dedicated to my beloved granny........................

F.R.I.E.N.D.S........ my friends

Friends.......simple word but has lots of meaning to it..........a just hi friend, a friend whom you smile or wave at once in a while, a friend whom you remember always but dont call frequently to check how are they, a friend as important as anyone in your family, a friend whom you consider your soul mate.........

In my life, friends have always been my major support..... I share anything and everything with them.... just a few of them whom I hold very close to me, but what impact they leave me is beyond any words or expressions..... Being in a different city makes me miss my friends back in Pune..Pune has all the sweet memories........

My mom always used to worry about me when I was a kid and when other kids would be mean to me or tease me for me being bespecatcled,ugly, whatever..... I would run to her if someone hurt me bad or make fun of me and cry.and she would be nice and wipe my tears.but her fears never wiped out for me....... As I grew up slowly, I started turning into a hot tempered girl, call it adolscense or anger of being an ugly duckling... dont know but developed a complex for sure......

Shraddhu at my wedding.

I found a great gem at school in my friend Shraddha Shenoy...... She was one who understood me and be there for me... Wild memories remind me of myself and her going to karate in school as extra circular activity, eating tiffins together in school break (she would love to eat Akki Rotti i.e. Rice flour thalipit and especially the part which would be more cooked), having madras cafe toffees in school canteen, she was tour guide when we had gone to Goa (Shraddhu's native place) for a school trip........ We had lot of fun together and she is only friend of mine with whom I have been in touch with ,since we left school......... Whenever I used to visit Pune, I would visit her and she and I just would hang out atleast once and share whatever we had not updated about each other in long time........ She shares this amazing rapport with her mom, which I like a lot and she is big bully though she is just 3 days elder to me........ But I love her the way she is, her grace and her easy nature.......

At my residence in Pune, my friends were Teja Kale, Neeta Kashikar, Ashwini Shirsathe, Sayali Kale, Sayali Bhide, Anuradha Vaidya......... we were a gang of girls who used to play together, in later years sit on benches we marked as our own, share each and every thing with each other...... My deadline to get back home was 7.00 pm, being from a south indian family values, but deadline would alwasy extend to 7.30, 8.00, sometimes even 9.00............ Ah...I would hate the time when my dad would see me coming up the stairs, giving me a killer look and a look at the wall clock..... to indicate I was late..........

Later as we grew up, I saw Teju starting to focus on her singing classes and riyaaz (practice) which she would do without....... Music is like blood running in her........ She always wanted to be a singer and she never shifted her focus from it and now is Masters in the subject....... She drifted slowly apart in her thirst for music knowledge, which later on made her to stay in Kolkatta, Lucknow and Mumbai...... She is the most focussed person about her career, we had in our gang and even if we just happen call on each other's birthday, we tend to share this amazing bond that we know anything, anytime we are there for each other.........

Neetu, my friend, my elder sister, the one liner queen and incredible person in my life......She is a person whom I think my life is incomplete without....... She has this incredible positivity to her and she makes everyone happy around her. She does not hurt anyone on purpose and keeps mum in her biggest tension time....... I and Neetu, in later years of my stay in Pune, were inseperable.We would eat patties from jawadekar, eat pani puri or 5 rupee kurkure, drive in rain and sing songs loudly on road while driving, sit on some or other bridge behind my palti (two wheeler) and pass comments and check out cute guys, when we were bored we would just make different laughing noises and laugh on the way noises were made...... Anyone who saw us alone would ask where is my or her better half, in absence of other person.She is such a lovely person to be with and I forget all my tensions with her....She is a person who knows me so well that she can make out what am I thinking at that moment or what I feel about something.We speak same words same time and think alike that few friends would actually think we are doing it on purpose....... Whether purposely or mere destiny, I found my soul mate in Neetu.........

Shilpa (I love calling her shilps, goes with her overall cool personality) is my college friend right from 11th to our graduation..... Though not great friends in initial 2 years, we lived our lives together literally from morning to evening for next 3 years..We would go to college, bunk lectures, go to the very next IMDR canteen, eat misal daily even if we werent hungry and share 12 rupees per plate kharcha,which later became 15 rupees, go to CA tuitions together, I would distract her and make her bunk tuitions and we would have dabeli on tilak road or just hang out,....... I think I picked up my hobby to collect new handbags and new footwears style from Shilps...... She has a lovely fashionista inside her but  she splurges out when shopping. She introduced me to Fashion street in Pune, she introduced me to whole new angle on fashion...She likes collecting all good things may it be ear tops, handbags, clothes, footwear...... Shilps is a very free natured, nothing hideous in mind person..... She is honest and does not speak one and think another....... She is one friend I visit time to time here in Bangalore,since her work got her transferred to this city, just when my marriage was to happen........

Any news from these people excites me like Shraddhu's marriage which I went and attended in Mumbai, Teju's grades and achievements in her Masters, Shilpa's Oriflame membership to market the products in her free time....But today, I just thank god every day to tell him that even if I am no friends with whole city, I am thankful to have such 4 incredible friends, who make me smile, burst in laughter, shed a tear for when in pain and more importantly, just being there for me......... For us, Distance does not matter, feelings does, may it be overseas, different city or just 5 kms apart........

From left to right: Teja, Neeta, Me, Shraddha, Shilpa....... In my marriage.....

This one is dedicated to my best friends whom I will always remember till my last breath and beyond................

Love,

Preeti............

Food.........

Well, I am very particular about the food I prepare and the way it should taste.......Cooking comes as a  part of my gene, thanks to a wonderful cook my dad has been......... Though I like a variety of food, I am very particular about the way it has to be prepared...........

Since I grew up in Maharashtra, my mom and dad introduced us to a variety of dishes....It included chinese, south indian, north indian, maharashtrian, gujrathi, rajasthani......... My dad is so amazing ,he would be always travelling thanks to his job and he would taste new dishes and come and experiment at home............

Well today I went shopping with my mom for her monthly grocery and few spices I needed to prepare the Sabzi masala (vegetable masala)..... I use it a lot to prepare the regular vegetables the maharashtrian way, since my hubby likes the taste of it.........and all my cooking is devoted to please him....... As they say ," A way to man's heart is way through his stomach"

Anup does not have good apettite but never complains or is fussy about what he eats..... To contrary, I am very particular to what I eat and also how it has been prepared..... I like things a little spiced up and chatpata, he can have extremes from the palest dal straight from cooker to spiciest pani puri......... But he is very supportive of what I prepare and never wastes food, for which I respect him a lot..... He has this sweet tooth and I just did not know how to prepare any sweet when we got married........ slowly i learnt how to prepare, Gulab Jamoon, then laddoo, then kheer, now would be trying out besan laddoos for Dasera.........

I had chance and time to pick up few veggies from Gandhi Bazaar, an amazing place to shop all types of veggies, fruits and flowers in Bangalore..... Its all fresh and in abundance....... I managed to pick up almost 6-7 varietes of veggies all in just 80 rupees...... Not a bad deal at all, in the times of price rise.......

So I had already planned what I would prepare for dinner and just wanted right combination of veggies to go with the parantha I was preparing........ Since I like to learn new things and prepare it at home, I learnt how to prepare Palak Parantha........I read this from the book written by a famous chef in India, Sanjeev Kapoor .......The receipe is mentioned at the end of the blog....

I have started watching all types of cooking show..... Since I am pure vegeterian ( I eat egg only in cake,else no no....my mom does not even eat that), I like to see all veggies cooking show...... lately I have started watching this cooking show on NDTV Good times, called "Gourmet Central" hosted by Vicky Ratnani.........He also hosted "Do it Sweet" with Maria Goretti, famous MTV VJ....... To be really honest I find his cooking interestng but the only choice of words he has is lovely, beautiful, perfect, where is my hatoda( where is my hammer, apparently he calls the pepper crusher as his hammer).I just mute when watching and learn whatever he is cooking........ I liked his episode where he cooked Spanish food.....

One of my hobby is cooking and hence, you guys would read a lot of receipes apart from my takes on fashion, current topic, relationships, life, etc.........

Love,
Preeti.

Here is the receipe of Palak Parantha for you guys.......  

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch Palak (Spinach)
• 2 cup Wheat Flour
• 2-3 Green Chillies or as per taste
• salt to taste
• 4-5  garlic pieces (optional)
• 1/2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
• oil/butter for frying

Preparation:

1. Wash and clean the palak(spinach). Keep 3-4 leaves aside.
2. Boil loads of water in a vessel and add left cleaned palak(spinach),salt to it, turn the gas off and cover the vessel. Leave aside for 10-15 mins. Allow this to cool.
3. After that drain the palak(spinach) and puree the palak(spinach) in a blender along with the green chillies, also add garlic(optional). 
4. Chop the 3-4 Palak(spinach) leaves coarsely.
5. To wheat flour add salt, jeera , chopped palak(spinach), palak(spinach) puree. Make a dough of these ingredients.
6. Divide the mixture into 7-8 lemon sized balls.
7. Roll the parathas, preferably square or triangular in shape, and shallow fry them on a griddle (tawa) on medium flame.
8. Serve with dahi/butter/ketchup/thecha.... 

Try this at home and let me know through comments how does this come out........

Introduction

Well Thats me......... Preeti.Chandrashekar-Vaidya......... Wonder why two surnames......well, Chandrashekar is not my surname but my dad's name....... I am a south indian brahmin girl born in Bangalore and we generally add our dad's name after our name. Vaidya is my surname post marriage........ Though conflict of thought and a bit of emotion involved whether to give up my dad's name post marriage or not as is the custom in India.

But it happens so that I realised that my biggest strength in life is my dad and his mere presence in life is just a honour for a girl like me...... To give up my dad's name is to give up who I am, my self confidence, my upbringing, my strength....... I would not recognise myself without it and also not relate to any other name.......

So thats my thoughts on surname..........  Well thanks to my bro, I learnt how to start blogging... I heard it but had never done it before...... Well today was the day I thought I would start......

I am a simple girl with simple thoughts........ a self confident girl, independant, likes to shop, hang out with my friends, likes to cook and expermient on my husband all new dishes, travel, trek, watch movies, etc etc..

I was always given all the opportunity in life to excel and stand on my own by my parents......... My mom and dad were pillar of any decision I took in life......... I consider myself very lucky to have such a great family.....And what is silver lining to this is my hubby Anup, who is very kind, supportive and ever there for me......... My parents gave me all the liberties and all freeedom in life,treated me as equal to a son......... They embarked upon me all the great values in life which I am making use of at this point in my life.........

Currently I am staying in Bangalore, which also happens to be my native or my birth place...you see both mom and dad are from bangalore originally.... At home being youngest, I would compete with my bro, Ashok for everything, from room to the time till which we should return back to home on new year night...... What was holding good to him was also true to me........ I always competed with him but on right note....... He is the bestest bro one can have and also a big time bully if he finds something wrong with me.now a days my weight.......

Ma is one person whom i admire a lot...she stood with us all the time..... she likes to go shopping with me on laxmi road and tulasibagh in pune, our once upon a time home........ she likes to enjoy all good things in life and be surrounded by people she love....... she somehow has turned into my kandaka ajji.( meaning granny who wears spectacles..)

Well thats it from my side today...... with a band aid finger i think this is enough thoughts to type today........

Keep reading for my upcoming blogs and post comments, if you like it...........

Love always,

Preeti.