The joy of being 'me'

25kms and roughly 6 hours – that’s the stats of how much I walked today. Usually I keep my Sundays to sleep and to watch movies. But today I thought of breaking the old schedule. I decided to go and out and find some nice shots for my photo albums. I started from the hotel at 12:30 in the afternoon without deciding upon the destination. I just started walking on a known path, the way to Walmart, where I go each weekend. I walked and walked and then I walked some more. Finally I stopped at a local mall, when I couldn’t stand my hunger. I had a pizza, drank a cold cappuccino, had a look around for some camera prices and then decided to walk back again. It was roughly 3hr-a-side trip, a tiring but a very special one.

Today I remembered many things, which perhaps I forgot in this fast pace of life. I remembered walking with my shadow again, as I used to do when I was a kid. To watch it change its shape & size as the day passes by and to try running and leaving it behind. Check out my image blog to see a photo I clicked with my shadow today.
I realized how much fun it is to talk to yourself and discuss all those doubts you are having for almost forever and to find out, quite amazingly, that all the answers to those doubts are actually with you only. You just need to ask yourself.
I realized how I completely forgot the joy of walking on narrow elevated part of the footpath without falling down, with my hands spread in the air. How I forgot the touch of cool evening wind hitting against my face and the beautiful yellow touch that the setting sun gives to the sky above.

I was a child today, the way I used to be when my mother used to pick me up from the school and take me back to home. I was eating, singing, shaking to the beats of lovely ‘Lucky Ali’ songs, climbing on road-side railings, shooing away the birds perched on the ground, jumping and trying to touch the high branches of trees – all while walking the whole day out. I didn’t care if anyone is watching; I was just completely lost in the rediscovered joy. I almost walked through the small city of Puebla, without a tinge of tiredness.

Maybe I should take out some time for myself a bit more often; maybe all of us should try and do that. Believe me, its fun.

Quesadilla

From this post onwards, I am planning to write one post each for some of my favorite Mexican dishes. These dishes may be known to most of the people and maybe unknown to many. You may know a different form or the version of the same thing. What I am trying to present here, is the form of the dish in which I tasted it on the streets of Mexico. For any city, as far as I have experienced, street food gives you the authentic taste and flavor, be it the mutta-parota of road side vendor in T Ngr, Chennai or the delicious pav bhaji of the road side stall in Model Town, Delhi or my present favorite Mexican delicacies of the roadside stall outside Puerta Tres, Puebla, Mexico.

To start with, I will take up one of my personal favorites in Mexican cuisine, “Quesadilla”. This dish is basically made out of Corn tortillas (tortillas are Mexican equivalents of Indian Chappati/Roti, only a little thicker), Queso Chihuahua (a special kind of cheese which melts into soft cream like substance when heated), mushrooms, green chilies, red & green salsas (sauces).

The tortilla is first baked and cooked properly from both sides, without any oil. This is a plain Chappati/Roti like preparation with a bit of salt added for flavor. Once cooked, the filling is spread over the tortilla, which in my case, being a vegetarian, used to be chilies, cut mushrooms and pumpkin flowers. The cheese is then torn into shreds and spread over the rest of the filling to form a layer. The tortilla is then folded and left for some 5-7 minutes so that the cheese gets melted and sticks the two oppsite folded sides of the tortillas and keeping the filling inside the quesadilla. Once fully cooked, it is opened again to put the salsas inside. Depending on your choice you can have any salsa added to your quesadilla.

When served hot, it just melts into your mouth, leaving behind the splendid combined flavor of cheese & mushrooms. For me, it is the best thing you can get for around 13 Mexican pesos, which will leave your stomach full and your taste buds quenched. But for eating quesadilla, I have a rule. I eat it only if I have attended my gym workout the previous evening. This is because it is high in calories and excessive eating may leave you worrying about your bulging tummy :)

So this was my version of the Mexican Quesadilla. There are many other varieties and variations depending on the fillings and on the way it is cooked. You can find more about quesadillas here.

Of India & Indians

There is so much pride we Indians associate with our country. But you will be surprised to know the outlook of people who see the country from outside it’s borders. These people don’t belong to the uneducated or ignorant lot, but are those who hold masters degrees in finance, who are heading the entire finance departments of big firms, who listen to news daily and are well aware of the world-affairs. Just have a look at some comments I came across on my beloved country & some questions I had to answer, that too patiently.

• Are women allowed to touch anyone else other than their husband, father & brothers?
• You have only one brother?? I have heard that each family has 8-9 children in India.
• India is land of 1100 million people, who share water, bedroom & bathroom. But apart from this over-crowding, it is a nice place.
• The govt spends most of the money protecting cows, then some on protecting other animals and whatever is left, on humans.
• People have to often leave the country for better development (note the word) and to feed their many children.
• India has the largest film production in the world, because the government spends most of its funds on Bollywood instead of feeding it’s people.
• Indian people eat only twice a day, have unsafe s*x and beat their wives daily.

Of Paneer-Tikka, Idlys & Tacos

I really wonder how we can be nostalgic about different things in different situations. Just for example, take the case of the author of this blog.
Around 4 months back, when he was living in Chennai, away from his native state Delhi, he used to miss “authentic” north Indian food like hell. Its not the case that South India doesn’t offer you decent north Indian food, but as you cannot enjoy the real taste of “nariyal chutney & Idly” in a south Indian restaurant in Delhi, the same way the “shahi paneer” wont taste the ‘delicious’ same in a dhaba in Chennai. Anyways, coming back to the point, he always used to crave for good north-Indian-trade-mark-paneer curries and used to wait for the time he would go back to Delhi and savor the food he is missing for long. Every six months or so, he used to satisfy his taste buds during his trips back to north India.

As the fate had in store for him, he was further thrown away to Mexico. He used to tell me how good the Mexican food is and how happily he is enjoying the spicy Mexican delicacies. I heard from him that there’s nothing in this world which tastes better than Tacos & absolutely nothing which can match a hot quesadilla. But it was not long before he started feeling nostalgic again. In a recent conversation I had with him, he admitted that now he is missing the food back in “India” (North or South not applicable) more than ever before. Doesn’t matter whether is Paneer Tikka or Sambhar wada, whether it is Gobhi naan or Onion Utthapam, he just wants some Indian food to eat.

Being a witness for long, to his changing preferences and nostalgias, he makes me think again and again, about the changing preferences of human psyche. I wonder if this is the case only with a weird psycho like him or others too experience the same phenomenon.

Rules

After a long deep thinking session of around 5 minutes, I think I have discovered the following ‘tested & working” ways to keep yourself happy:-

• Live in the present. Don’t give a duck about the past or the future. What has happened you cant change and what is going to happen you cant change much of that too (though many self-help-book-reading maniacs will differ on this), so to live the present moment to the fullest & you will never be sad for another second.
• Time to time reflect back on your life and remember all those times when you were really happy. When something really good happened to you or when you got rewarded for something good. Suddenly, you will feel a rush of happiness gushing thru your viens.
• Always take out time to do things you love to do. Be it dancing like animals, eating out at your fav place, watching movies or any wild thing on earth. Never hesitate for following your passions.
• Always laugh out loud, from deep within your heart. Be with people who make you do that. We don’t realize, but without laughing, our life stinks like a room which hasn’t been exposed to sunlight for months. If you cant have the company of such people, then be one.
• Stop having expectations from people. The more you expect from someone, the more you will get hurt. If you don’t expect anything, every thing done by everyone else will be a pleasant surprise. Even if they don’t do something, you will never realize, cauz u didn’t expect anything.
• Finally, remember that every passing second reduces your life span by a fraction. Every passing day is one unit less from the total allocated to you. Then why the duck u need to spend it worrying, crying, thinking and being sad. Nothing is worthy enough to make you waste your time worrying on.

What is gone, was never yours. What is yours, you will get anyways. So what is there to think about. Give the best to the present moment and you will always get fabulous returns from life.

(Someone please come and make me believe and follow all this :) )

Being a D00d

Thinking deeply and observing a bit more closely than we normally do, all of us will realize that we are essentialy, “Alone”. By alone I don’t mean that we don’t have anyone around us to talk, or to share things. What I mean is no matter how close you consider a person to be, at some point or the other he/she will make you feel that you are all by yourself. That may happen unintentionally too, but it happens for sure. In the end, its your inner self only which we will be there to console you when you are all broken and down. And the person, due to which you are having those feelings inside, will be completely ignorant about all this & sometimes will be deliberately ignorant too. You may get frustrated and you will try your best not to think about him, but more u try to throw those things out, more they will return and hit you harder.

Ant its not that you always are on the receiving end. Sometimes you exchange positions and make others feel exactly the same. Hence, this applies to one and all. When some people say that they live in present and don’t care about what happened yesterday and don’t worry about what is going to happen tomorrow, their attitude seems to be a bit unnerving to me. But frankly speaking, they are the happiest people in the world. That’s actually the way to live, to be happy. I cannot idealize someone with that behavior, but a close friend of mine, D00d, is the nearest match. I hope I could change myself to be like that. But due to some close people, whom I love way too much and to whom I have attached myself so strongly (maybe the reverse is not true), I am not able to do the desired. After all, not all of us are’D00ds’ and not all of us are made the same way.

Mein akela nahin hoon

Dil aise na samajhna ki tu hai akela mushkil mod sahi
Hum rahe they kabhi na kabhi yahan par thodi der aur sahi

Is pal aaye hain, phir kab jaayenge
Kehne sunne aaye they, samajhke jaayenge
Mera na koi hai patha is jagah par
Yun to hai mera yeh jahan
Ambar bhi thehra hai abhi kehkashaan par
Faila hai dekho yahan wahan
Milke barasta yeh chala hai jahan par
Kisi ki marzi hai ho tum aur hum bhi yahan

Jab nahin tha jahan tab se hi koi yahan to
Dil kyon na mil ke rahen
Waqt rahen na sadaa, yun guzar jaayegaa

Dil ek saaye mein mil, reh jaayengi chahe do baatein
Jab chala jaayega, tu chala jaayega

Sunne wale ne, kehne wale ko
Woh baaten sunayi samajhne waalon ko
Taaren bhi kaise timtimathe raaton mein
Koi na tanha hai wahan
Chale hi jaathe hai yeh dil ko lubhaake
Unhi ke jaate hi aaye savera yahan

Dil aise na samajhna ki tu hai akela
Mushkil mod kahin

-Lucky Ali