The war!

It all started with a smirk.

Well, frankly it all started with the fact that I was planning to buy a bicycle to save me waiting time at the bus stop and I realized that the only spare tyre I knew was around my middle..hehehe!! And I thought - must-go-to-the-gym. That thought has crossed my mind so many times this past 6 months, that it simply bores me to death now. But when apart from physically, when I started to feel sluggish mentally as well, I just knew it was time for action.

So I said to myself, ~ Its hitting the gym time!!! ~ And it smirked. The physical me just smirked! I have had half a year of inactivity, puncuated with just a burst of a week's worth of jogging (stopped that after I started coming back with a blue nose atop a frozen face) but really, the nerve!!

So after accounting revision class today (where my brain was actually comatose) I hit the gym. Oh, the snigger and the subsequent smirks!

First, I couldnt find the gym. The Uni sports centre is absolutely mazey! I went through a dozen squash courts, two table tennis courts, a conditioning suite, the toilets, the showers, a couple of undergrad girls putting mascara on and then FINALLY (!!) the cardiovascular suite! By now, the physical me was doubling up with pretending-to-be-good-laughter, you know, the kind where the person you are laughing at knows you are laughing at her, but then you are watering at your eyes, but trying to keep a straight face while your mouth cant help showing the teeth?? That kind of laughter.

2 kilometers of treadmill (at speed 8 for about 1 km) and 3.5 kms of cycling !! I did it! Went to the gym !! Oh victory is sweet! The victory of will over mind. Was empowering to tell my body to listen to me and not vice versa!!

Aah! First step taken, the journey of a thousand miles begun!

:)))))
Ash

My valentine!

I got an e-valentine card today! Meticulously done in Paintbrush and accompanied with a nice letter over email that explained how he got into a fist fight with a boy who called him and his family bad names in English, Hindi and Malayalam!! My 10 year old neighbour in Chennai, Jithu, found time and inspiration for making me smile and chuckle!!

Thank you Jithu and AJ (the 'in our hearts' means jithu's and ajay's hearts!)

:))))
me!

Culinary adventures

Remember when you were a kid and playing cricket? Facing the meanest bowler to have ever been born on the earth. He(they were usually guys, girls make the sweetest street cricket bowlers ever!) would go back a kilometer, to come running towards the pitch with a velocity you thought belonged only to the leopard, to throw the ball with such vigor and energy that all your senses would say, ....drop the bat....RUN FOR LIFE!!! But of course, you couldn't do that, because then the guys would say, "Aaaah, didnt we tell you, girls cant play cricket??!!!" So you grit your teeth, grip the bat and pray that later in life you find someone who will love you, just the way you were about to become....squashed nose and broken teeth!!

And then, you close your eyes and out of sheer reflex action swing the bat...it makes contact with that meteor ball...and you rattle from head to toe like a tuning fork almost forgetting to whisper a word of thanks for the spared nose and mouth! And then you hear it....applause, cheer, hurrah!! Its a SIX!!!

Victory is sweeter when its unexpected! So is curry!

When I had gone to Fathers John, Laurence and Stefan's house for lunch on Christmas day, they requested me to make the UK famous, Indian 'Curry'. Novice as I am at cooking, but amateur as I am at masking the novice-ness , I made something out of the plethora of spices that the priests had for some unknown reason hoarded up in the kitchen cupboard. They liked it. Phew!

Weeks later, Father Stefan saw me at church and called me aside. "Ashika" he said, " I never paid attention to how you made the curry last time. And I havent stopped thinking about it!!"
Pat pat! Ma would be proud of me!

So, Sush and I, went to Broomhouse to have lunch with the priests this afternoon. They wanted 'authentic' Indian food, so I made, chicken curry and tomato rice (actually the only other things I know how to make apart from omelette and hot water! No, wait! I know how to make sambar too!OHHH! Pat pat!!) And there were guests! (Talk about external examiners!)

Ok, I am not going to go into the details of the whole lunch episode and I am not going to pat myself again (pride cometh before a fall!) but I was a happy lass when the curry and the rice was wiped finish!! And Leo the labrador who usually just gave me a wee glimpse and would trot away, while I ran behind him, today insisted that I give him a tummy rub...I wonder why?! :p!!(oh, btw he ate the rice and curry too!)

Thinking of opening a restaurant in Edinburgh!



Ash