You know you are talking to an NRI

when......

1.He greets you with ' wazzup dude?'

2.On every Friday, he asks you about the weekend plans, and on every Monday, he asks you what you did the past weekend.

3.He cannot talk without using words like ' cool','hows life'

4.When 'pardon me' gets replaced with ' I am sorry'.Trust me, I was taken aback once when I was talking to a lady and she said ' I am sorry'. I was like why should she be sorry?

5.Even simple words like 'how are you doing', becomes ' howdy doin'

6.NRIs suffer from X=X+1 syndrome.They keep postponing their return to India by 1 year.

7.Soda is a necessity..he needs to have a soda with dosa/ pizza/anything

8.Can and Can't - both are pronounced similarly.You are left puzzled as to what is it that he is actually saying.Similarly STOP is said as STAAP.

Just before sleeping...

What does the dear husband do
when the wife asks important questions like

* Do you love me?
* Do you feel happy with me?
* Do I keep you happy?
* What made you like me/ love me?
*Am I your darling?
and many more,very religiously every week, especially when going to bed at night?

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The dear husband simply dozes off not knowing a way to stop the wife from asking these kind of silly questions.

The Summer

In the last one month that I had called my family in India, I get to hear how hot and humid it is.Love it or loathe it, the peak summer is bound to stay with you atleast for a good 2 months.The month MAY reminds me of the blessed dullness that a scorching mid day brings along with it.

* Better hygiene as you end up taking several showers.
*Crisply dried laundry
*Trickle of sweat on the back
* Long afternoons
*Darboos everywhere
* Pieces of kirni liberally sugar coated and left to cool in the fridge
*Mangoes in all form- juce, shakes et all
* More mangoes in the form of maavadu, thokku
*Elaneer, nongu
*Butter milk ( neer moru) prepared with ginger, tiny black msutard seeds, corrainder leaves floating on the buttermilk sea
* Mottai maadi thookam
*Paati swirling a handfan over me and chasing away the heat

and lastly
hoping that the summer would come to an end.

Gut Feeling

IHS series

HE & SHE are travelling to a friend's place for the first time.

SHE:We are totaly lost, no phone coverage. and noone around to ask for directions

HE: Enna panrathu?

SHE: At times like these, your gut feeling really works.What do you say?

HE: I think we should head southwards,thats what my gut feeling says.

SHE: OK, lets head northwards then,its always E.X.A.C.T.L.Y. the opposite of your gut feeling that works.

HE: ##$$$$@@@@@^^****

07.05.08

As I look up at the daily sheet calendar , I notice that it was Akshaya Thrithiyai .I was immediately transformed into the jewellery world in Chennai - T.Nagar.With so many jewellery shops, I was mentally picturising all the buzz in the jewellery shops this day. It would be a day in the jewellery shops

** where gold gets sold like vegetables in the market
** where all the ladies prove their bargaining skills, while they bargain for the best price
** where noone understands the darn calculation the salesman/ saleswoman says
** where lakhs of rupees overflow every hour
** where raagu kalam and yema kandam timings are religously followed by one and all
** where you need to push your way in/ out of the shop
** where all the ladies are busy comparing each others purchase

where the husbands anxiously wait outside the shop to know how how much of the 1000s or lakhs are busted

School

Unpolished shoes
Kizhinju pona socks, hidden under the pants
Bath in the morning, thala neraya coconut oil
Viboothi
Amma hurriedly packing the lunch in the 3 deck aluminium tiffin carrier
Thakkali sadham, egg inside the rice
Butter milk in an old ruchi ooruga bottle
Butter milk stains in the lunch bag
Loud chatter and chaos in the classroom
PT sessions
Book cricket during social studies class
Paper rockets

Oh boy....what fun

Tiffin

Imaginary He- She( IHS) series

SHE: Hi, enna innikku officela irunthu seekirama vanthuttiya?

HE: Ya.weekend mood.Amaam, nee enga poittu vara?

SHE: I went to see my friend "G"

HE:Seri va, namma tiffin saapadalam.

SHE: What? so you cooked?

HE: Ya, I made rava upma.

SHE: How sweet of you,officela irunthu seekirama vanthu tiffinum panni vechurukka.

HE: Illa, nee eppothum rava upmava kindi koozh mathiri seyyara, athaan innikku naan correcta pannalameynu senjurukken.

SHE: ##@@@$$$$?????

Food Cravings

First few weeks in US -
when you are just settling down and friends give you what they cook-anything in the name of food is good. Friends are god sent.

Next few weeks -
self cooking- Wow, I cook well and the food is yum.

The weeks thereafter -
same rice sambar and vetha kuzhambu, lets try out different cusines..Mexican, Italian..etc.Taco bell is heaven.

After some tryst with multi cusine eat outs -
Oh, nothing like Indian food. Let me hit the Indian restaurant here.

After lot of naans, chaat items, panneer butter masala, gobi manchurian at the local Indian Restaurant -
homely saappadu is what I am craving for.

After some mental picturisation of home made dosai, idli, pongal -
call up mom / MIL and ask them when are they coming here?

This day, That year

From mere infactuation to committment,

From just like that to "let me do this regularly",

this blog is on for one year. Yes, its a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my blog.

Husband in the kitchen

Purpose: To make Vada

An assessment....

• Chopped onions, chillies and curry leaves strewn on the floor
• Kitchen messed up to a great extent
• Maximum dirt on the outside of the mixerjar
• As many spoons/ forks used and scattered
• Sink with an uphill of vessels to be washed
• Onion peels flying in the air

Satisfaction : Highly staisfied for not needing to enter the kitchen to make something. Had some relaxing time watching tv and browsing the net.

Conclusion: Totally worth it and absolutely Y.U.M.M.Y. vadas.

Count of vadas: More than 8.