The Pizzazzy

Some things interestingly change over a period of time. In the earlier days of our marriage I used to be so disturbed by Anand’s constant snoring. Lots of waking hours were spent getting amazed at the various noises he could make from his nose. There intensity would vary depending on how deep in sleep he was. As suggested by him I even tried to turn his head a little when his snores got too unbearable. But nothing helped except for nudging him slightly so he would reposition himself and for a few minutes I would have quite a peaceful sleep before it started again in the background.

Now, it’s a different scene, without realizing how, this sound has crept into the normalcy of life around me. I am so used to his snores that I even miss them when he is not around. In fact it feels as if there’s something quite out of place without it. My mind is so tuned to his snores that now the snores induce sleep in me and it is quite peaceful also. Although I still take refuge in the pages of my favorite novels I also need the constant snores in the background.

Apart from inducing sleep they also provide me with a sense of security. My brain has registered this sound and sends out signal of safety automatically as I know just by the snores that he is besides me. I think the sense of sound beats the sense of touch. Amazing isn’t it. Such is the life after marriage, some things are really shocking at the beginning and soon without realizing they become part of your life. Anyways how many times would a girl look at her boyfriend and wonder “does he snore in bed?” How unromantic would that be?

By the way the romance flies right out of the window as soon as you start settling down into your so called married bliss with the snores and everything else unless you start finding your husband’s snores very romantic. Seriously!! You have to keep the romance alive or look for it somewhere else.. Okay this was a joke. I mean try to find it in small things and not lose yourselves in all the chores that your routine entails.

Sometimes when I sleep alone and I wake up in the night and don’t hear the familiar snores my sleep runs miles away and then it takes some time for me to get back to sleep.

Since I promised to be honest I’ll tell you another irritating habit between us. Somehow in the night I manage to pull the blanket all to myself. God knows how I do that considering that the struggle is between me and the heavyweight. The thing is Anand must have been or rather is equally annoyed with this habit but as I said such is the life after marriage that he denies to use a second blanket. Now that’s romance right! Sharing the same blanket!! See it isn’t all that bad also.

Before I forget let me tell you the point here, marriage is mostly about companionship and accepting each other the way they are, most of the time adapting yourself to the likes, dislikes and good or bad habits of your partner. It solely means doing things together. And somehow I could never understand the need for personal space between couples. I think this happens only if both the partners are not understanding enough. Well I am leaving this post at this point to touch on it again in some future post but if you feel otherwise come enlighten me too.

Saturday morning started with Cholle Bhature. Cholle tasted really great and although the bhatures didn’t turn out soft it tasted real great. A tip to make the cholle great looking as well great tasting is to tie half a tsp of tea leaves in a muslin cloth and add it to the cholle while boiling. This will give the chole the dark colour. And another is not to add any turmeric powder. In the bhatura I added the yeast and curd but the dough turned out little hard and I think I tied the dough in the wet cloth real tight leaving no space for the dough to ferment.

Lunch was delicious prawns pulao. After all that food the dinner was simple varan bhat chappati.

Sunday morning began with another all time favourite of everyone - Poha. Even before the Poha was digested the preparation of Mutton Kheema started and the aroma coming out of the kitchen made everone hungry again. After a good fill of Mutton Kheema, Chappati and Bhaat, we all took a good two hour nap. In the evening we got up to the smell of fresh tea and now it was time for the attraction of the day Pani puri.

Earlier in the day I had made the Imli ki chutney and the green pani, had also soaked a combination of grams and pulses. This was going to be a kalkatta style gol gappa. After boiling potatoes and the grams and pulses together, I mashed them by adding some kala namak, chaat masala, chilli powder.

Now we all were set to start attacking the puris. Me and Mom-in-law started filling the puris with the masala and the cut onions and some sev and filling up everyone’s plate before we could attend to ourselves. The five of us finished around 100 pani puris. Even though our stomachs were full, we couldn’t keep our hands away from the puris and thus was spent a good food filled weekend.

Wasn’t that a lot of food and are you not wondering kya family hai?

Well in the evening when we met Nitin and Shilpa, and Anand was asked to tell three positive things about me the only thing he could manage was that I am a good cook. So, the magic worked and may be the old granny saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach is afterall the truth.

As I mentioned before that my work hours hasn’t started being crazy yet, but the team stays at work atleast till 7:30 and here I am recently back from onsite and trying to take advantage of some unwritten priviledges one of them  is to leave early. Early as in around 6:30. Than it takes half an hour to fight the two major bottlenecks when one tries to drive out of Hinjewadi at rush hour.

In a week’s time we shift to our Baner home and my travel time will come down to 15 minutes wonly Some of you who might think of correcting this, this was intentionally trying to be racial towards the mallus in general. Yes, recently we have been making such a fuss about a trivial thing as calling someone “Monkey”. If this is being racial then my friend Megha is a big racist who keeps referring to her husband or kid as “Makad” day in and day out and and so much so that sometimes we fail to realise exactly which Makad is she referring to. For those who are at a loss at the word, this is the Marathi word for “Monkey”.

Since my childhood days which has been spent among the cosmopolitan crowd typical of Army, this crowd is a good mixture of quite many Panjus, Sards, Mallus, Gujjus, Marus, Marathis and a handful of Chinkies. Yes, this is the very word “Chinky” which I have grown up with. I really hated the word at the beginning but then I never thought this was being racial and on many occassion I have referred to my looks as “Chinky’ looks. Racial, am I?

The other day at home we had a big discussion on what is being racial. My definition of the word is “Generalising the behaviour of a group of people on the basis of their origin/color/country”. A lay man’s definition rather. Never before have I given such in depth attention to racism. Even when Shilpa Shetty won the sympathy of an entire nation and more on the Big Brother show and then the title subsequently. It was only the Bhajji and Symonds show down which has given racism a new height.

Some of the best Sard jokes that I have heard has been told by Sardars only. I remember reading Kushwant Singh’s collection of jokes and many of them were on Sards. while in Singapore I was told by friends that one can be caned for being racial. But I still believe that Indians on a larger scale are least bothered about racism in general. Calling people as Panju or Mallu is actually like referring someone with a pet name, in this case a huge group though. But isn’t it our love and familiarity with the group which gives us the priviledge of addressing them in this loving manner.

It is our love only that we refer to the Blacks as Kallus when we are in the US of A. This is the Indian love and not racism. So friends, countrymen and Symonds please note that racism is in the mind. Being called monkey might be racial where you come from but not in the land of Monkey God Hanuman. By the way the very human race are the descendants of Ape, the primitive man.