Avocado y Guacamole

Avocado is something I never heard of before I came to Mexico. My first personal encounter with the fruit was quite amazing. Before I start describing that, I want you to know what exactly an Avocado is.

Avocado or more commonly known as aguacate in the Spanish speaking world is a pear shaped fruit with an egg shaped seed at the center. I have seen two variants of the fruit – one with a hard outer inedible coating which has to be removed before you eat it & another with a thin blackish-purple skin which can be eaten along with the fruit. This fruit has a buttery texture similar to how a banana feels if you peel it and hold it in your hand (that slippery greasy touch). It is light green in color from inside and has a mild taste. See here for more details.

I have been eating this fruit almost as early as 2 months after I arrived to Mexico. The main source of it was the Taco shop just outside my office. The guy at the shop used to put it in my tacos. Also, I ate it in the form of Guacamole at the local restaurants but that started only since a couple of months back when I started eating Mexican food frequently. While living with my Indian friends I never experimented much in terms of food and always stuck to basic Indian cooking. But now that I got an independent apartment with more freedom in terms of choice and variety of cooking I decided to explore the available options. Including Avocado in my cooking was the first thing which crossed my mind. I bought a couple of them during one of my visits to the local super.

It was the first time I was buying Avocados & hence I had no idea how to choose them. I just bought three good looking “firm” fruits and came back home. I had seen the man at the Taco shop peeling and putting them in the food and hence I knew that the fruit was expected to be soft and creamy. But the ones I bought were firm and raw. So I thought that maybe I have to boil them before I eat. I boiled the poor little fruits for more than hour before I came to know thru one of my friends that it is only the ripened fruits that you have to buy and if you buy raw ones, you have to wait for a couple of days for them to get ready. To give a parallel, just imagine something like boiling a raw mango to make it ripe and yellow :)

I am totally in love with the fruit and its taste. I make sandwiches, guacamole, put it in chutneys and even eat them with my salads. Check out the videos below to catch a live glimpse of the fruit.

Avocado the fruit




The delicious Guacamole

A runner's paradise

Running is something which gives me a lot of mental satisfaction. I really enjoy running for long stretches and getting drenched in sweat. It somehow helps me get rid of my stress and other mental pressures apart from keeping me active.

So when I decided that I am going to continue with this passion of mine after I reached Puebla for my 4th trip of Mexico, I was faced with some disturbing little problems. First was a rather dangerous “canine” problem. Yeah, you read it right – canine. The first day when I set out of my house for a run, a huge furry white dog almost bit me on my leg. From that day onwards I was so watchful for dogs that I could hardly concentrate on my thoughts or on the running itself. The second main problem was the traffic. To avoid the dogs in the residential areas, I was running on the side-lanes of the main road and hence was confronted by fast and furious flow of traffic. So again, I had to be very careful about how and where I am keeping my steps. These things virtually sucked all the joy out of my running.

Yesterday when I stepped out again, I saw a huge football field with a nice racing track just across the road, at a distance of around 5 minutes by walk from my house. I have been eyeing it for long but since it was adjacent to a big school and I didn’t know the local language so that I could go and ask, I was avoiding entering the field. But this time somehow my legs automatically took me inside the campus.

I saw a couple of people standing there and I decided to go and talk to them. I approached them and asked “Hablar ingles??” they said, “No”. I knew it was no use waiting there to find for an English speaking guy. But before I would decide to quit, I thought of giving it another try. I saw another gentleman coming my way and I asked the same question to him. Hesitatingly, he replied, “Yes, por que”. I was happy. I said, “Una pregunta. Do I need a permission to enter this field and do some running?” He said “No! Its free”. I replied,” Muchas Gracias” and left the place.

The place was a real paradise for a runner - lush green football field surrounded with a contrasting red running track. I could run forever at that place if my body allows me to. I ran for about 30-35 minutes before coming to a grinding halt. It was getting dark and I had many things to do at home. I just took some pictures with my mobile and started walking towards my apartment.

I was so happy that I got such a nice place to run where I do not have to worry about life threatening traffic or perilous dog-bites.

Here are some photos

Good bye

I saw you standing at a distance,
And I knew it was you.
I saw you smiling at someone,
And I knew it was you.
I saw you hopping around like a butterfly,
And I knew it was you.
You didn´t even notice me staring at you,
But I knew it was you.

Then the day came when I met you
and saw deep into your eyes.
I couldnt help myself
but stare at that magical smile

Never realised I was falling in love
till I knew you were already engaged.
Each passing day was pain like hell
to see you showering love on someone else.
I saw you holding his hand,
I saw you waiting for him,
I saw you sleeping on his shoulder,
I saw you crying for him.

But I held my ground
till you knew that I Loved You,
I stood firm
till you believed that it was me.
I was there for you always
till you said you love me too.

It was magic then onwards
and we were playing in paradise.
Time flew like a bird
and we cruised happily through life.

Then the devil struck
and there were tears all around.
Hell had broken hard on us
and I knew you were gone.
It was never the same
as I realized what I had lost.
You never turned back to me
and I too was lost in my world.

Today I see you going again,
Far far away from anything we had.
Going to another world
Where there wont even be a trace of me.
I cant say if I am happy
neither can I say I am sad !!
I just feel I have lost something
Which actually I never had !!

- Anonymous

Give me the truth

Sometimes I try to give meaning to all this happening around me, or rather to all that I am doing. Each passing day adds a million more moments to my life, scores of more memories. Some of which will cling with me for a lifetime and some which will fade away sooner than I will ever realize. I am "living" this life each passing day.

Living - now that is an interesting thing to do. We live; through a hundred different things we do - by going to our job, by eating three times a day, by talking to our friends, by being with our family (lucky few), by having sex when we want to (applicable to yet fewer), by spending money on things we wish to have, by being happy in our loved ones' happiness, by being sad in their sorrow. Each of our lives is a sum of some or all of these sundry activities which supposedly define our life.

A week back we were in school, a couple of days earlier we were enjoying in college and it was only yesterday when we stepped in our first office. Time's running away so quickly. I cant slow it down even if I want to. Tomorrow, it will be time to get married; let someone else enter your personal space and scan through what all has happened with you till date and then ask questions. Then, spend a day explaining to her about things you don't even remember happened sometime in your life and before you can realize, the day is over and you are going to be a father. Then spend another week taking care of your children and suddenly when the weekend passes by you find yourself sitting in an armchair enjoying your retirement and reflecting upon the way you "lived" your life.

Why are you doing this? Why am "I" doing this? Why are we just moving around in this endless loop ? Just because an ideal man should do all this to be a part of the society, I too am obliged to follow it? Where am I in all this? Where does my opinion matter among all these rules and predefined structs of a civilized human society?

I see people lying in ruins on the sidewalks, I see others fixing a crappy nuclear deal somewhere, I see yet more being ruled by their spouses and yet managing to be "happy", and then some more fighting for packets of food standing in waist high flood waters. What? What are you doing? Why are you sleeping?

Dont give me this shit. Dont give me love, respect, emotions, money, relationships !! Dont give me tears, smiles, laughters, screams & moanings!! Dont give me dads, moms, uncles & cousins!! Dont give me Ram, Rahim or Jesus!!

Give me the truth. Yes !! Give me the truth.

Before I Die

There are a couple of things I wish to do before I close my eyes forever. There is no laminated list as such, but if I start thinking, the following points would make a rough list

• Graffiti
• River rafting
• Rock climbing
• Camping alone in the wild
• Grow long hair
• Drive a car
• See Ireland

And last but not the least, know this damn ducker of a person called Pratosh Dwivedi.

MY family

I miss my family & maybe that's the reason I came back to this blog after more than 3 months.

To be honest, I really don't remember when I last even felt like missing them in the 3 odd years since I left my home. It was back in June'05 when I finished my college and went out for a job in Chennai. I've spent not more than 3 months with them in the past 3 years & amazingly, I never felt or regretted that.

It was the excitement of school for 12 years which always used to make me wait eagerly for the Sundays to get over. Which made me brood over the idea of going out somewhere lest I miss my school. Then it was the craze of 4 years of college; the newly found freedom, newly born thoughts & newly born relationships. After college it was the new job, which came with the pleasure of money and a "personal" space amongst all the social mess of course. I didn't even realize how naturally I took "them" for granted or to be blunt, how simply I ignored "them".

Now I see people, I see parents with their children, I see cousins having fun together, I see families going out for vacations, I see Dads giving advices to their daughters, I see Moms caring about their sons & then a sudden sense of emptiness sinks in. Where has my family been all this time? Or where have I been for so long?

I don't care to call home at night cauz its too late & I'll feel sleepy in office the next day. Or its too early in the morning & I will get late for office. Then after a week when I somehow manage to make a call & that too after my Dad tells me that "Dont get your Mom worried, call her once in a while", my Mom tells me that she knew I would be busy with work and she's happy I could manage to call.

I have grown up. I am moving towards my goals. I am aspiring for success. I am following my hobbies. I am earning good money. I am visiting places. I am eating in nice restaurants. I am wearing branded clothes. I am almost half way through my life. I miss my Mom. I miss my Dad. I miss my grandparents. I miss fighting with my brother. I am writing crap ?

Me, Myself & Lufthansa

Date – 12^th Mar’08
Place – Chennai, India
Characters involved – Me, Sonu (My roommate), LTA - Lufthansa ticketing agent, LFM - Lufthansa flight manager, Mohan – from my company's travel desk

Me – Sonu, its already 8:30 man, lets go and have dinner, otherwise I will get late.
Sonu – Bhaiyya!! Your flight is at 1:45 AM, so relax. It won’t leave without you.
Me – Yes man, I know that, but still I always prefer being at the airport at least 2 hours in advance, in case something goes wrong.
Sonu – OK, we’ll just go and have dinner & then you can leave

As we started for dinner, I got the call from the cab driver asking me the exact location of the place. I somehow explained him the way, since he didn’t know English & I had intense problems in speaking Tamil. As we started walking towards the restaurant, it started raining. By the time we finished our dinner, it was pouring down heavily. We somehow managed to reach back home in time and get into the taxi. Since it was late at night and once I go inside the checking area I can’t meet anyone, I told Sonu to stay back and wished him goodbye.

I reached the airport around 10:30 PM. Got my luggage checked and stood in the queue for checking in. Since I was early, in hardly 5 minutes, I found myself facing the guy on the counter.

LTA – Sir, can I have your passport and booking reference please?
Me – Yeah sure (Handed over both the things with a smile)
LTA – Please keep your luggage on the platform for weighing

(At this point I was a bit apprehensive as I expected my luggage to be a few kilos heavier than allowed. But having prior flying experience through the same airline, I expected it to go smooth. Suddenly, my thought process was broken by the LTA’s voice)

LTA – Sir, your luggage is above the permissible weight, you have to pay taxes if you want to carry all of this.
Me – Ok, by how much is it exceeding the limit? How much do I have to pay?

(Expecting a figure of some 4-5 kilos, I thought I will talk it over. But I was totally rattled by his reply)

LTA – Sir, it is 30 Kgs above the limit and you have to pay a sum of Rs 75,000 INR.

(At first I couldn’t believe what I heard, but then I thought he has made some mistake and I should explain)

Me – The weight limit for the check-in luggage is 23 Kgs per piece right? And I am allowed two pieces.
LTA – No Sir, for all flights going to North America via Europe, the total weight of the luggage allowed per passenger is 20 Kgs
Me – Boss !! This is the third time I am having this trip & I this is my 5^th check-in at your counter. When did the baggage rules change?
LTA – Sir, the baggage rules are the same for the past 3 years. There is certainly some confusion here. You can see on your e-ticket, it is clearly mentioned - 20Kgs per passenger

(To my horror, it was indeed mentioned below the flight details. “Have I been ignoring this all the time I was going to Mexico? Ok, even if I ignored, how did these people allow me?” Seeing my blank white face & the long queue formed behind me, he spoke again -)

LTA – Sir, people are waiting. If you have any problems with this, I will suggest that you talk to our flight manager.

(I nodded my head in consent & he called for someone from the back-office. I unloaded my luggage from the platform, put it back on the trolley and started walking away from there, with an embarrassed face. People standing in the queue were staring at me, as if I just broke some international-flying-law. The flight manager appeared in a moment with a big walkie-talkie in her hand. By seeing her face itself I knew she would be a tough nut)

LFM – How can I help you Sir?
Me – Maam, this is my third trip from India to Mexico & suddenly your people are telling me that I can carry only half the amount of what I have carried on all my trips.
LFM – Sorry Sir, but our rules are the same for the past 3 years. I am sure some confusion has happened on your side. As you can see, the same thing is clearly mentioned on your ticket.

(I knew that I have already lost the battle, but I still tried to convince that lady giving all sort of arguments. But as I estimated from the first glance, she was totally “un-negotiable”. I called up the travel desk at my company who told they will try to help but it may take some time. As there was hardly an hour left for the last check-in, I decided to do the inevitable. I called my room mate and told him to come to the airport)

Me – Sonu, I am stuck in thick soup, please take the bike and come here ASAP. I don’t have time.
Sonu – Why? What happened suddenly?
Me – No time for reciting the whole Ramayana right now, I have to return half my things, you come here quickly.
Sonu – Ok, don’t worry. I will be there in 30 minutes.

My face was red like an apple. I felt as if all the blood has come and collected inside my head. I was not able to understand what to do. How will I do away with half the stuff? How will I reduce the total weight to 20 Kgs? After a couple of minutes, I realized there is no way out & I have to go ahead with this. I took a deep breath and found a small place at the middle of the hall to do the re-packing. I laid down both my luggage & opened them. The only thing to me relief at that time was the fact that I had distributed things evenly between the two pieces of luggage. So I just opened them and put all the stuff I had to return in one luggage.
A pair of formal shoes, a pair of sports shoes, shampoo bottle, cosmetics, books, some casual clothes, and all other things I thought I could manage without. I took out some books and kept them in my cabin baggage. Finally I re-packed everything and started looking for Sonu. In another 10 mins I got a call from him telling that he is waiting at the entrance. I got up, picked my luggage and as I was about to take the first step, all the stuff from my cabin baggage came out and got scattered all around me. Gosh!! I forgot to close it. I could feel the staring eyes around me. I somehow stuffed everything inside only to find an African woman photographing me sitting in the midst of the mess. I ignored her and walked towards Sonu. Handed over the luggage to him and gave sincere thanks. Then I walked back towards the counter and checked in what all was left with me.

My luggage was still around 10 Kgs above the limit, but being a witness to what I went thru during the past 1 hour, the LTA didn’t utter a word and handed me the boarding pass. I proceeded for emigration with the” how-I-am-going-to-manage-with-so-little-stuff” thought lingering in my mind. As I was standing in the emigration queue, the guy from travel desk called up.

Mohan – Pratosh, just now the Lufthansa people told me that you have checked in. So I suppose it’s not a problem now.
Me – Yes Mohan, I sent by half my stuff & I don’t even know what all I have with me. So I too suppose that it really isn’t a problem right now.

He sensed the frustration in my voice and decided to cut the call after a brief wish-u-a-happy-journey conversation. I passed through the emigration and final security just to reach the terminal in time for the boarding call.

Lufthansa – There is no better way to fly