My morning walks are frequently interrupted by long periods of procrastination. When I do get going, it will continue uninterrupted until something comes around to break the habit. A couple of years ago during the peak of covid, this was a daily habit. On those walks I would see other people walking at the same time. As you pass them by daily, you develop a strange bond of acknowledgement with these strangers. One set of people I would acknowledge daily was an older couple, both very lean and lanky. They looked like their cares of the world were done. They always walked together in rhythm and we would cross each other twice on the round of the park. There would always be a wave, a hello and a smile at each crossing. I would spend a few minutes thinking of them and how they fit so comfortably with each other..

After a good break, I started my walks again. Today, as I was walking, I saw the lady in front of me by herself. It took us both a moment to acknowledge each other, and it seemed like the gap of all these days just got filled. She looked a bit sad, and I couldn't help thinking what had happened to her better half. I, of course, couldn't stop and ask her as we had never crossed the formal introduction bridge. I wondered if she had lost her partner in this gap. It made me sad to see her there without her partner.. I moved past her quickly as my emotions welled up.

Then as I looked up, behind her was another lady walking her dog and right behind that lady was the better half of my walking buddy and a gentleman discussing the numerous Indian stores around us. Now I understood why my buddy was a bit sad...

All is well in my walking world now..

 My almost new Google Pixel Pro suffered a wild mishap last week that left me searching in the dark corners of my bank account. Repair costs were high , and the idea of just buying a new one was very unappealingly staring me in the face.

I decided to get all DIY-savvy and researched Ifixit products, purchasing the Pixel Pro repair kit. With all the knowledge of a potato in a chemistry lab, my kid and I bravely plunged into the abyss of phone surgery at 11:00 pm . The YouTube video seemed to spell out the steps like a GPS, but then it happened—a moment of absolute befuddlement. It was like the video missed the "press the big red button to fix everything" step.

Cue the epic showdown: a roaring argument between the teen and a grown-up trying to adult. Age initially flexed its muscles, but alas, 15 minutes later, I had to retreat as the teen was proven right. Roles reversed, and she started throwing rhetorical fireballs at me, while I shamefully took cover. She took the lead on the surgery, while I stepped back performing trivial activities like removing the adhesive from the backing.

After a couple of trial and errors, we were able to hear only the sound and not see anything. We managed to backtrack and correct all our blunders. We attached the screen, powered it on, and voila, the screen lit up with "Google".

Two hours later, we emerged victorious from the smartphone-surgery battlefield, equipped with newfound wisdom and the ability to replace phone screens.

Lessons learnt..

1. YouTube shorts may be short, but they wield the power of enlightenment!

2. While phone replacements can drain your wallet, DIY is surprisingly doable if you're up for the challenge.

3. The teen phase isn't always a battleground; it's a phase of budding mini-adults.

4.We've just minted a core memory, complete with a humorous saga of screen repair!

5. And oh yes.. I need to invest in a screen protector..

Ra-one viewed and reviewed

Ra-One viewed and reviewed here.. there are a couple of reasons I wanted to watch Ra-one. I had not seen any Shah Rukh Khan movies in the past so many years on big screen. The last time I saw him on the screen was in Om shanti Om. The other being Rohini was crazy about Chammak Challo!

So here goes my review for the movie.

Remember you are going to watch a super hero movie. Which movie based on a superhero had any logic invested in them? Let the thrills begin and keep going seem to be the motto there.

Also remember that you are going to watch an Indian super hero movie. The movie is made by an Indian.. is in India and is based on a game hero that is an Indian. So why do you cringe, if the droid-hero has a few pixels of H(e)ART in him?

By all standards of super hero movies made in the USA, this movie falls short.. but by all standards of super hero movies made in India, this movie has its own standing.

Chitti took the cake with Robot. G.One takes the pie with Ra.One.

The story line is about average.. a lot of hamming done by SRK as Shekar . He didnt have to be the nerdy tamil geek scientist. At the same time as G.One when he said he would protect you, you do believe it.. there were some attempts at Steve Martin (read pink pantherish) type humor. All these nag a little in the back of your head.. because now the director/story teller is attempting to put some logic where there can be none. Kareena looks good and is surprisingly tolerable. I didn't cringe like I did every time Aishwarya Rai came on screen in Robot. The kid also does not grate on your nerves, unlike the kid "Rehaan aapse bahut pyar karta hain" from Fanaa.
The sidekicks played a minimal role and did what they had to..The special effects are good. The villain Arjun Rampal has exposed another facet of his talents .. This guy can be menacing.The climax was again technology vs human brain ..

The concept of a game hero stepping out of the gaming world into our world to finish off a game is brilliant. Today when you think its cool to have a relationship with your Phone a.k.a Siri, why is it difficult to conceive a world where technology and humans actually can meet.
A.I has proven to be very powerful today with machines being automatically controlled, Surgeries performed by Robots and planes flying on auto pilot. Today we have no problem trusting our lives to these machines.


In one of the reviews on Ra.One I read somewhere that the characters are not 3-D but only 2-D .. If you are watching a movie based on game heroes.. I am surprised you look for  3-D traits in game heroes.
This is not a movie for the person who wants to laugh with P.G wodehouse. This movie is for when you want to step out of your real world into another world and believe its possible.
Go watch it once.. have fun and come back. Don't watch it expecting Shakespeare to fly into space and rewrite star wars and star trek.

Identity Crisis Resolved

It's not the first time.. and I am sure it will not be the last time. Every party that I attend, where the majority of the attendees speak one common language, have made my origins a source of their jokes.. of course with the disclaimer that they hoped, I didn't feel bad.. which I don't because I don't consider myself as any more of a malayalee, than I would consider myself a maharashtrian. Having grown up in a cosmopolitan environment, I never had to defend my people or my language. It was but natural that all my friends didn't have one region or one language to unite us. There were a variety of topics to keep the conversation up.

The reason I felt enough to blog about it is that now I have a few questions about my identity. I didn't grow up in Kerala, so I don't know what the people there joke about..I didn't grow up as Maharashtrian, so no idea what the jokes there are like. My parents never encouraged talking about other people or grouping them as far as I can remember.

It is only after moving to the US, that I have become very conscious about my identity. I used to introduce myself as a mumbaiite, originating from Kerala. My husband always tried to set me right.. but I never realized how right he was until now.

But just to get the little facts about Malayalees that I know..

a. We do not all have an accent. If we do, its an accent most south indians for whom English was not the primary language share between themselves.
b. We do not all have a chai kadda..Even then, we are the most enterprising lot and educated lot .
c. We are all not non-vegetarians.. there are some of us, that don't eat meat or FISH and I am one among them and proud to be so.
d. We do not generalize and group people based on where they originate from. Everyone is welcomed with open arms.
e. Not everyone knows who or what shakeera is.. so STOP asking.
f. We have some wonderful cinema, that gets overshadowed by the movies made by bigger movie industries. Infact most of the hindi movies now are a remake of their very successful malayalam movies.

Today I sign off being very proud of being a Malayalee..I am a Malayalee, who grew up in Mumbai. I hope my daughter grows up as an Indian who grew up in America.

Adios.

Pineapple Cake recipe

I have been trying to get the recipe for pineapple cake..

this version is eggless.. I am using a product called ener-G egg replacer.

I had found a basic yellow cake recipe that worked for me.. and am making modifications to it, to get pineapple flavors in as well as using egg replacements..

So here is the cake recipe... This will make one 9 inch / 2 6-inches..

2-cups plus 1 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising) (Swan's cake flour)
1-teaspoons baking powder
¾-teaspoons baking soda
1/2-teaspoon salt

3 tsp ener-G egg replacer  You should get this in any grocery store.

4-table spoons water

1-cup diced canned pineapple along with the canned juice.
1 stick (1/2- cup) unsalted butter, softened
1-cup sugar
1-teaspoons vanilla extract
1-cup buttermilk

DIRECTIONS :

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cake pan

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl

Beat in egg replacement ( mix the egg replace with the water )

Beat in vanilla.

Beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture looks curd like).

Stir flour mixture till combined.  
Pour batter into a well greased and floured pan.. line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

For Frosting

2 cups heavy cream

2 table spoons icing sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat everything in a chilled bowl and with chilled beaters.

Keep in the fridge for a few hours.

Cut up the cake, layer with frosting and pineapple pieces

Layer the cake slices

Do a last frosting with whipped cream again

Pop it back into the fridge for some time

You can take it out and decorate it as you please…

Walking for a cause..

Late March, I received an email, "Pledged for a cause" from my friend S.. I ignored it..I was too pressed for time with work, family and home, to think about my friend and her email.

A few days later, I received another email from her "I need your support" .. I shelved it to the back of my mind, promising myself that I would go back look at her cause, later and also fund her.. but time pressures and commitments came in between and that was put on a pending thought.

It took a couple of emails from her to jolt me from inaction to action, and I donated the money to her cause.. which was a walk for breast cancer. My thoughts were she is a little crazy to be doing this.. and why is she doing this?. Putting herself through a 39 mile walk to raise some money. But I didn't get a chance to pursue this thought much further.

Some time last week, we talked for over an hour,which we had never had a chance of doing ever since we left school...she was in training, walking her 5 miles to be ready for the big walk.. and I realized that this girl is commited to this cause and I was amazed..It takes a lot to be commited to a cause that does'nt affect you directly. One has to be selfless and determined to go through with this.. to be focussed on the end goal and the route to take. She was doing this walk, and she had her focus and determination in hand and in place. Distractions and other priorities had no place in this walk... S, you amaze me every single day.. I know I have told this to you before.. but when I think of you walking 39 miles in 2 days, on the 10th of July, I have to put you on a really high pedestal.

I will be thinking of you and suporting you in your walk.. don't think that you are doing this by yourself.. I am with you.. and I will be walking along with you from here.. as much as I can and if you feel the need to stop, I will goad you on..

Love
kavi..

The matrimonial bug..

This is so strange. A few years ago, I was on the other side of the coast, the single eligible and "homely and comely" girl waiting for a suitable alliance from all similar boys. The saga of my groom search started when I was a very naive 21 and looked at life through the romance novels I read hidden from my mother's eagle eyes. My suitable boy was there and he was just around the corner. I like many others before me was ready to get married to the first boy my family showed me, because that was how it was for everyone.

The first alliance that came was from a highly educated fellow who was getting his Phd from a prestigious university in Texas. I spun all the dreams of a naive girl, goaded along by my parents, who didnt know any better. Needless to say that fizzled out due to the constantly changing mind of the groom in question and my better senses that kicked in telling me, I don't need a fickle minded companion. It was only after getting to America, to another university in America, that I learned the truth of the matter being he had a girl friend hidden away. His parents wanted to tie him down to a "nice mallu warrier* girl " , as his brother had also gone the same route.. Well I was better off single and eligible and homely and comely..

Well .. not exactly. Because now my parents kicked into second gear.they were not accustomed to this scenario. usually no one looks beyond the first proposal. hmm, so next they present me with another warrier boy, whom I am supposed to go and meet someplace in Austin. Well I was still listening to my parents back then and I went there with my roomie Rash. The two of us met the boy and his parents at the South indian restaurant. The only memories I came back with is that of the food and how good it was. I put my foot down strongly against this proposal, and my parents put both their foots and hands down in favor. However this was not destined to be

Still in second gear, they managed to find a namboodiri* lad, working for a big firm in California. He seemed like my ticket to a happily married and settled and contented life. My family was ready to write down the marriage date as well. But by now, I was not a very obedient girl and had my transgressions from the laid down rules now and then. So I and the namboodiri lad decided to meet up first. I am glad we did that , for it was a case of oil and water. When we converyed the decision to our parents, it wasn't unlike the Tsunami that hit the coasts later that year.

After this, I was extremely clear that any alliances would follow only after my studies were completed and, I found a job. I was not content being dependent on any individual , emotianally and financially. This was probably the start to a new me. Following my graduation, my dad who was sitting on hot cakes started sending me proposals... one after another.. Since I had already crossed the so called marriageable age and was tainted with the "US ki chori" (girl from US) label, the field narrowed down considerably.. The choices out there were not very appealing.. from a male chauvinist, who expected me to drop everything to be at his beck and call, to the geek in bleechers, who was content looking at the animals in the safari and taking pictures of them, to the player, who was out the scope by talking to multiple girls at a time..

Finally I met my prince charming, and am living my life happily.. I was reminded of the whole situation a few months ago, when it was time to get my brother married. But needless to say, he fell right into the normal scenario.. saw and talked to one girl and she is going to be his life partner.. a very sensible lad and sensible girl! Wishing both of you a very long and prosperous life together :)

* specific castes in Kerala

The cake

I promised to post pictures of the cake..

ever since i started taking the classes, I would be skimming through the web for perfect ideas for cakes.. after a while, thats all I would be doing while surfing the net.

I knew I wanted a doll on her cake and I found the perfect one at Michaels. and then it was all about figuring out what do I do withe the doll.. well here is the final version

still at it

I never thought I would say this.. but i am cultivating my gym experience as a religion.. something I follow no matter what.. I remember the days I would make up excuses to get off my behind.. but now no sir no! even if its for 20 min, I ran on the treadmill and came back .. I did a few min of patio cleaning, which is an exercise as well.

Since I am blogging about it, I hope that I will be accountable enough to keep at it.

Summer is here, the main highlight being 1/2 day fridays.. at work.. an incentive that was started last year as compensation for things we had to let go of last year. I have to find ways to get my fridays hours utilized..

on a side note, Rohini is now 14 months old and at the brink of spewing words.. well she has started babbling already.. in baby language.. we understand each other perfectly well.. :)

she enjoys going out for a walk wearing her squeaky shoes.. everyone stops us on the road and wants to know where to get these.. Well these are made only in India :)

Come to think about it, I miss a lot of made in india products... their counterparts here are no match for the original..