A moment worth writing about.
She rests on one side of my shoulder and he on the other side. My 4 year old and my 9 month old. I feel the warmth of their bodies as I rock them to sleep on the cozy rocker which is big enough to hold the 3 of us. Both of them are very tired after a couple of hours of playing. They promptly fall off to sleep, their weight getting heavier on my shoulders. I want to cherish this moment as long as I can. I know one day I'd be thinking back to this moment and wishing that my kids were so small that they could both fit in my arms! That my kids were so attached to me, that both of them wanted to sleep in my arms and they could too! It was an unforgettable moment and I had to blog it!
I am hoping moments like these are more and more since I am working from home from the past week and it is a joy to be with my kids all day. I do get a breather on Thursday's where I have to troop into work, a welcome breather I must add, but the joy of staying at home, dropping and picking Lil A to school, being with Lillee all day - ah! This is what dreams are made up of!
Yeh chote bachche itni jaldi bade ho jaate hain! I look at Lillee and think that not long ago Lil A was the same size and I look at her now, towering over him - going - mamma main choti nai hoon - time just flies!!
Magical Moments with Lil A
So yesterday I get home from work, do the usual and at about 10 o’clock prepare to cook next days lunch and dinner. Lil’lee [My son] would not let me work nor would he be calmed in his dad’s lap. So I had to take over and could not start my work until a couple of hours later.
Dad and son both are asleep. I am cutting, chopping and cooking in the kitchen. Keeping me company is my darling Lil A. She sits on the bar stool and keeps talking to me. Our conversation goes something like this.
“Tho A aapka school next week shuru hora”She starts laughing and clapping in glee.“Kya hora?” I ask.“Main bhoth exciting ho gai mammma” she says.I smile. I do not want to correct her, as usual.“Tho A school mein kya karte?” I ask her.“Apne friends se milte”“Kaun friend?”“Main noni [her way of addressing her dad] ku bol di mamma”“Merku bhi bolo..”“Aap noni se poochlo mamma. Main bhoth tired ho gai aapku bolne” she says with an impish grin.I grin back. She knows how to make excuses very well.“Aap aaj office mein kya karen mamma?” she asks me.“Computer pe kaam kare A” I tell her.“Main aapke office kab aa sakti?” she asks.“Aaay the na aap!”“Nai roz kab aa sakti?”“Kyon meri office ku kaiku aate…”“Kaam karna rehta na mamma” she laughs out amused that I am asking a silly question.“Tum abeech kaam nai kar sakte A” I tell her.“Tho phir kab karna?”“Bade hole karna”“kyon?”“kyonki pehle aapku school finish karana padta, phir college mein jaana padhta, phir job karna padta”“Achcha”“Kya job karte tum?”She does not know what to say. So I give her multiple choice“Doctor Bante? Engineer Bante? Computer pe kaam karte? Yaan Kahaniyaan likhte?”“Doctor Banter” she says confidently.“Achcha? Kyon?” I ask.“Tabiyat theek karne..” she answers.“Kiski?” I ask.“Arey mamma, jinki tabiyat kharaab hothi unki” she says.She is keeping me company. Making my chores seem so easy. Its nice to be spending time with her like this. After a while I observe that she’s getting a little bored.“TV dekhte A?” I ask her.“hau mamma. Woh naye waale cartoons dekhte..” she says.I put her Cartoon Network on. She watches for about 5 minutes and comes back.“Mamma merku bhoth neend aari. Aap merku sula de sakte?”“A mamma ku kaam hain na beta. Aap jaake noni ke saath so jaao!”“Nai mamma. Aap merku sulaana…”“Main nai sula sakti bete. Mera kaam khatam nai hua na.”“Theek hain mamma aapka kaam khatam hue baad sula do…” she says her huge eyes filled with sleep.“Der hothi na A, aap Baba air Lil’Lee ke paas jaake so jaao!”“Nai mamma. Main aapka wait kartoon..” she says and goes to watch TV again.I work for a while and she is quiet. Maybe she is asleep I think and go to check, but no she is not sleeping she is forcing herself to watch, not allowing herself to fall asleep.I work as fast as I could. She keeps coming over to determine whether I have finished and how much more longer I have to go.At last I am done.“Chalo A. Mamma ka kaam khatam ho gaya!” I say.She giggles with happiness.Both of us go upstairs hand in hand. Its 1:30 am.Dad and son are fast asleep.We go in A’s room. Its an emotional moment for me. The little darling waited for me so long to finish my work for that moment. So that I could turn my attention from everything else in the world and focus just on her. She was so happy to have those few minutes of complete attention from me. Lil’Lee’s arrival has put a huge dent in one to one interaction with Lil A. But at that time the whole house is asleep. I change her into her night dress and she happily climbs into bed.“Ek story bol sakte mamma” she asks.“Nai A mamma bhoth thak gay” I say.“Achcha mammma” she says as he hugs me close.“Aap merku bhoth pasand mamma…” she says happiness writ large on her face.“Aap bhi merku bhoth pasand A” I tell her.I start weaving a story. She is very happy. She kisses me in the end, turns and falls asleep and I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to be loved so unconditionally and so completely.
I know things are going to change as the years roll by. That I am not going to be her complete universe. Infact I would not want to be either. But to feel that you mean so much to a small child, to feel so needed, to be so loved..its indeed something. The moment was just magical!
I am it...
There is this tag-game going on in the blog-world. I thought I was not playing until
Chay tagged me with a you are it! you are it! in her exhaustively exuberant style. Since she recently did something very nice for me, [yep, yep she is capable of doing nice things too ;-) ] I could not refuse her. So here is the list. A little whacky I assure you but hey that's me.
1.Don't bump me on my head with a club. I do not like that at all: Sensitivity. The most important thing I would seek in my man, or from any human being for that matter is sensitivity. While I belive that each one of us is sensitive to ourselves, it is being sensitive to other people and their feelings that matters more. I feel aghast whenever I hear insensitive comments coming from oh-so-sensitive people who would wilt if a drop of water were to fall on them but have no qualms about squishing other people's feelings beneath their feet. So please put that club away my man, especially when I am around!
2. Color me Red: Passion. You could as well be dead without it. Passion for what you might ask? Well it could be anything. Music, Travelling, Partying, Movies, Books, Friends, Conversations, Art, Family, Hobbies - anything. As long as there is a passion within a person, I can relate to that person. Passionless existence turns me off big time. Maybe it is very wrong of me but I'd be like - so what is it that you live for? So come with with me my love and let's play with the color red!
3. This features on almost every list and mine too : Sense of Humor. I think it was on
Rad's blog that I read something that went like if that man can make you laugh - then marry him. Don't look for anything else. I forwarded that to my husband because the foremost quality that he posesses is this incredible sense of humor which can put a smile on the most sourest of souls. While I would not say that sense of humor is the only thing, I would definitely say its a top rated quality. One that is justified in appearing in every list possible. Though one important thing to watch out for is whether your sense of humor and the person's in question [the perfect lover ;-)] should match. If your idea of sense of humor is quite different from his' then you are doomed. Other than that if he can make me smile, nay, laugh, through my blues then add one more to the score!
4. Dil bole boom-boom: Physical Attraction. Well, well, well I would say I am talking about love and making love here. For me a relationship is doomed if one is not physically attracted to the other. I mean it is wonderful if you connect emotionally, can speak with your eyes and all that stuff but if you can't make each others' heart go boom-boom then you are definitely not doing something right. And that one would be a great put-downer - a person who cannot do it right. Sexual compatibility adds so much more to a relationship and I entirely disagree with the hypothesis that it fades after a while. Well then please don't let it fade. I would much rather be dead [ok I exaggerate a little] then be with a person who cannot make me desire him just by a look or a touch. A lot of factors go in making that happen. Looks, grooming, confidence, sense of dress, the kind of shape you are in, the kind of err..moves you can make coupled with love ofcourse...whoa! whatta combination!!
5.Yeh interest ki baat hain: Common interests. I would love it if my man shares, some, if not all common interests with me. It would be a major turn-off for me if the man is not into any kind of sport. If he is into cricket, so much the better, but somehow a man with no interest in any kind of sport, whether in following it or playing it somehow gets a -1 in my list. I should be able to come home and say - Dhoni ne kya dhulaai ki without him going is Dhoni a Dhobi by any chance? Now that would be a major turn-off. Other than sports, I would like us to enjoy a Jajgit Singh ghazal as much as we would enjoy watching Seinfield. A man who could enjoy a serious film just as much as he would laugh at There is Something about Mary!
6. Hey! you..dont' you dare run away: Courage. Courage to stand up to oneself and courage to do the right thing. I cannot stand mousy men who would much rather distance themselves from any kind of disturbance and be left in peace rather than taking up cudgels - who cannot face confrontation of any kind. I am all for not creating unpleasant situations and trying to stay away from them but if you are dragged into one such situation then you better have the courage to stand up for yourself. A little bit of aggression when it is needed is a very good thing in my book. Not foolish aggression mind you, but one in which you do not take crap from anyone and everyone but give them back in the same coin. I would hate it if my man went - chalo nikalte hain yahaan se when confronted with unpleasantness. Thoda muscles flex karo, when the need arises!!
7.Treat me well..treat me special : A romantic. Not your chocolate-roses-valentine's day romance mind you but more of the practical kind. Like wanting to spend time with me, doing small things like taking out the trash, bringing in the groceries without having to nag, saying something special - even something as corny as you are not just my wife, but my life ;-), staying up talking all night long, going out on an impromptu long drive..sigh...that is the stuff dreams, nay, real life is made up of. The I-am-here-for-you-no-matter-what-and-I-love-being-there kind of person!
8.I would list all other qualities as number 8. All that go without saying. Compassion, respect, understanding, support..blah blah.
uff! Good Lord! I am done.wooooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo hooooooooooo!
Now comes the best part. I can now say you are it.
I would wish to tag
Peppy,
Cheti , Captain Nemo, Ananth and
Silo!
A view and 2 reviews...
You do not kill yourself or harm yourself for an injustice done to you in which you had no part. That is the feeling I got from watching two Hindi movies recently. The stories of both of them were based on a significant event in which someone close to the hero/villian kills herself because of some events where the person is humiliated for no fault of her own. So suicide comes into the picture initiating a chain of events. Both were well-made movies which were away from the norm of some irritating revenge sagas. One was Zinda and the other was Kalyug. Both had tight-scripts and some very good music going for them.
But I shall be partial to Kalyug because of the performance of the lead action. Kunaal Khemu, who was a child actor not long ago,acting as the young Ajay Devgan in Zakhm - another good movie. This is an actor to watch out for. He gives such a powerful performance. He is good looking, has lovely flowing hair [which happens to be one of my weakness'], a deep voice and above all a talent for acting that many of our mainstream heros could do well with. He recently bagged the Stardust Award for the Best Debut Performance. He more than deserves it. Its amazing that someone so young could exude so much pain and intensity in the role of a young man whose wife commits suicide unable to bear humiliation heaped on her. The revenge saga was believable. One could feel his raw pain though one wishes that the director could have spared some more time in the love story to make his pain appear even more acute. A little story development between him and his wife could have been good though the Jiya Dhadak Dhadak song does a lot in that area. what a beautiful song! What simple lyrics but so soo effective. It goes something like this -
tuhje dekh dekh sona, tujhe dekh kar hai jagna..
maine yeh zindagaani sang tere bitaani...
how beautifully the concept of a marriage is conveyed here. People writing recycled lyrics for Hindi Songs could learn so much from this verse. Simple Originality. Pakistani Songs are so sublime...this song is just too good. Listen to it.
Before you get too comfortable the movie in the next five minutes takes a drastic turn and morphs into a revenge saga. Though the hero manages to get to the top of the chain responsible for his wife's death pretty easily, its an interesting trip nonethless made more believable by Kunaal Khemu's performance. He is simply brilliant. [am I gushing yet?]. But there is a speed-breaker in the form of one Mr.Emraan Hashmi [who btw was voted as your classic sadak-chap seedy character if there ever was in terms of looks and performance on SB today]. ugh! ugh! ugh! What does the junta see in this guy is always at the back of mind whenever I am enduring his performance err..on screen that is. He is so so bad in what should have been a powerful cameo but what with the Bhatt camp's obsession with him, he is given this role and he fails to err..perform!
And also there is Amrita Singh in it. Once again an author-backed role which she tries best to perform with her limited acting abilities. She does a decent job but the hard work in getting the scenes right shows. She is too tense - though that was required of the role too I guess. All in all a must-watch movie.
Now coming to Zinda. Over-hyped would be the word to use here. I had studiously kept away from any sort of spoilers on this movie. All I knew was that it was a remake of a Korean Movie - Old Boy. Yes, that's right our movie-makers have remade all good Hollywood movies that could be remade. Now they are looking elsewhere for inspiration. So I settled down to watch it late in the night without any distractions [read after Lil A had gone to sleep] and was very happy that it was supposed to be just a 2-hour movie. I had high expectations from it. As one Mr.SSM will vouch for me, for one it starred two of my most favorite handsome hunks ..Sanju Baba and Johnny Baby. The music was once again very good. Esp loved the song - Yeh hain meri Kahaani...wonderful lyrics and music once again. Esp the lyrics. Very very meaningful and intense. Gems like:
Yeh hain meri kahaani - khamosh zindagaani;
Ek daastaan puraani - tanhaai ki Zubaani;
har zakhm khil raha hain - kuch mujh se keh raha hain;
chubte kaante yaadon ke daaman se chunta hoon...
girti deewaaron ke aanchal mein zinda hoon..
Bas yeh meri kahaani - benishaan nishaani
The movie starts off showing a very normal couple, a normal friendship and once again before you start to get too comfortable there is that drastic turn again. The hero is imprisoned for no reason at all. For 14 years. Given the same food every single day and his only connection to the outside world is a small TV placed in the room. I read on oz's review of the same
Zinda, where thou soul where he felt that the director did not do justice to this sequence of events where Sanju baba is relegated to a single room. That he skipped over a lot of things that could have been unpalatable to the Indian psyche. well, I tend to agree with him though there was relief somewhere that such details were indeed skipped ;-) But I have to agree one does not feel sorry for Sanju Baba somehow. One does feel his frustration but somehow since the whole 14 years was shown in about 15-20 minutes, one does not feel the passing of so much time. The director should have done more to show his pain and suffering to make us empathize with the character more. For example not once is it shown that Sunju is missing his wife. Its like he does not even think about her or his life at all. There should have been more pathos, more feeling - atleast in the beginning stages of his imprisonment. Could understand his apathy later but not in the beginning. There is no reaching towards one's heart that would have made us sympathize with Sanju's character a lot more. I for one could not feel his agony. Sanjay Dutt does act well, but that is to be expected. He could have done more with it imho, which he doesn't somehow. He always comes across as being human though the role demanded that when he gets out he has turned into a monster. One does not get that feeling at all. Not even when he is doing a root-canal on Zutshi with a hammer ;-). He just does not loose the human-touch as he is supposed to!
Then ofcourse there is John Abraham. He does not make his appearance in the movie until it is almost 3/4th done. He looks uh..out of this world, though his character is once again run of the mill. The suave trillionaire who can stand to loose a million a day. But one thing about his performance is though he is dressed in the best of clothes compared to Sanju's tatters, one can feel the inhumaness in him just by looking at the cold look in his eyes. That I think is the hallmark of a good actor. That he can look the part, get into the skin of the character without any props but just by being himself. The only thing about Johnny Baba is that he can only look 2 parts - the cold blooded killer or the intense lover. He gets into trouble if he tries to do anything else!! I esp am near puking when he is trying his hand at comedy. Could not watch 'Garam Masala' after a few frames wherein he is shown to be this brainless photographer. John Abraham and brainless? They just don't go together!! So we have a brainy John Abraham who keeps challenging the hero to find out what it is all about. OUr hero sure does. With the help of - you guessed it - a female interest. How could there not be one? There has to be. So we have the Svelte Lara Dutta who happens to be a cab-driver, who instead of riding her taxi in the opposite direction at top-speed when she sees Sunju drill into a man actually falls for him. Dumb? You got it...well anyways so Sanju Baba does come to know what the secret is.
And the secret is - well that's the climax of the review. The secret is that there is not much of a secret. It is such a trivial reason that you are left completely shocked that Sanju Baba and you had been subjected to such torture for something that wasn't completely his fault. Maybe that is what the directed wanted to convey - that he had to go thru so much for such a silly reason. Here you are waiting with bated breath as to what inspired all this - and when it is revealed to you, you are left cold. That spoiled the whole movie for me somehow. It made Johnny look very childish and infact very stupid. That such an intelligent man who could trade in millions, interact with so many people could harbor such childish thoughts on revenge seemed somehow too far-fetched to me. It would have been so cool if Sanju's character had done some evil things in the past and one of them happened to happen to Jonh Abraham. That could have explained his single-minded devotion in seeking revenge. But no, it has to be cliched and cliched it is. Right from the reason to Johnny growing so rich in a few years to have Sanju working for him in one of his company from his innumerable ones. Couldn't John have been an ordinary person? What was the reason to show him as being so rich and succesful. Looks very cliched. Not a must-watch but not bad either.
Coming back to why I started to write these reviews. As I said both the movies had a suicide where someone close to the hero/villian commits suicide for no fault of their own. I wonder why that happens. In Kalyug the heroine jumps out of the window after a porn film which was made without her knowledge is shown to her. She does not pause to think - that's my husband I am with and if some goofball taped it and distributed it on the internet, I should not be killing myself but killing that goofball instead. Somehow can never understand that concept where people kill themselves instead of brushing the thing away. Sure you might face some humiliation but is that pain more than the pain you would be causing your loved ones, especially someone as cute as Kunal Khemu who sings such wonderful songs like Jiya Dhadak Dhadak jayen to you!!
Not bad at all...
"merku Naani jaan ku kuch bolna hain" she said as I made the customary Saturday Night call to my mom in India. I try to make it as late as possible so that Lil A is asleep and does not disturb me. She is with me almost very second of the day from Friday afternoon [where she gets off school] till Monday Morning. Does not leave me for a second. Does not want to either. And as is usual with kids wants all of mom's attention for herself. She is very fidgety when I talk to Mom because she thinks that I am diverting attention away from my mom. I remember visiting mom when Lil A was only 8 months old. Whenever I'd sit next to my mom, or put my head in her lap, she would with all her strength first crawl to wherever we were sitting. [though she had started to walk when we we in the US she stopped her attempts while in India. You see she must've felt better be safe than sorry as she felt the hard marble flooring underneath her feet instead of the plush carpet. Not once did she try to take a step for the whole month that we were there. Once we came back to India she started walking around as if it was the most natural thing to do. My mother still recalls how careful her grand-daughter was about her safety even when she was so young!] So anyways she'd crawl to wherever we were sitting, climb with all her might and then try to squeeze in between the both of us! I think she realizes that if anyone comes close to the love I have for her, its my mom and her father. She has resigned herself to accepting her father in her mom's life because he is always around and though she sometimes screams out lustily - "Noni, woh mere mamma hain" she generally does not try to seperate us as long as she is a part of the process. If we share a kiss or a hug with her watching, she does not say anything. She just starts going backwards with a hurt expression of her face with -
"Main akeli mere room me chale jaati. Merku koi bhi nai love karte..."
We have to apologize and call her back with a group hug, group hug and she forgets all the hurt in an instant and is the centre of the group hug!
So anyways she starts acting fidgety whenever I am on the phone with my mom. She tries getting my attention doing this or that and her master-stroke is asking to speak to nani-jaan because she knows that Nanijaan loves to talk to her. So anyways she asks for the phone saying she needs to talk to her Naani-jaan and when Naani-jaan comes on the phone she says -
"Naani-jaan yeh mere best mamma hain" she says pointing to me.
I was speechless. Did not know where that was coming from. The joy I felt at that moment is inexplicable. Nothing like I had ever felt before in my life surely. My almost 4 year old out of her voilition saying something like that. I wondered what had prompted that. Was it the Chicken Little movie I had taken her to that evening or the movies I had got her from the library or the homework we had done together where she is starting to learn to draw shapes and also recognize them. For the first time she came to know what having trouble means. She breezed through Uppercase alphabets and number but shapes presented a problem to her. She wanted them not to and we spent almost half hour where she kept confusing the rectangle with the square and had difficulty remembering a 'triangle'. She could not understand why a round was being called a new name - a circle. Many a time I told her we could do it tomorrow but she wanted to get them right. And she did much to the delight of her mamma who hugged her with a lot of kisses and appreciative words. Her face lit up and I knew why getting them right had seemed suddenly so important to her.
She revels when you praise her on her abilities and God forbid you do not laugh at something you had laughed at earlier. She would be at your neck till you give her the exact same reaction that you did when she did the routine the first time around. It gets so painful sometimes. You have to remember exactly what you said, how you said, what expression you gave, how tight the hug was, how high the pitch of your voice was, what exactly your action was and repeat it every time she does the act that elicited the response from you. If you forget, she will make you remember exactly with a high pitched response what will make you curse yourself for praising her the first time around.
"Mamma aisa haath utha ke, aise jhuk ke, aisa kisshi karke, meri pyaari beti kitta achcha kari aisa bole the na, waisa bolo" she will tell you and you have to do exactly that!
For example as I asked her to grab her homework [which included the shapes thing] as she got ready for school after a 2-week break today, the first thing she does is ask me
"Woh mushkil waala page kidhar hain?"
I have to halt everything that I doing and turn to the correct page.
She spreads it before here and without missing a heartbeat spews out the shapes, all correct. You guessed it now I have to give her the same reaction I had on Saturday night. Thankfully I manage and she is beaming. Not for nothing do they say that bringing up kids can be quite a job!
I also love the way she is picking up harder urdu words and especially using them in her conversations. Lil A is a very picky eater. To this day I have to spend almost an hour getting her to eat a proper meal. One thing she has taking a liking to in true Hyderabadi tradition is ofcourse Hyderabadi Biryani! With a couple of variations though - the rice has to be very soft [she seems to think chewing is a chore] and no mirchi at all. So I make special Biryani for her and her alone. Chicken, Gosth and vegetable pulao too because that is the best way to get some meat and vegetables into her. So I had made some Gosht ki Biryani and was happily relating to MIL that Lil A had eaten all her food and very fast too to encourage her to eat like that always. To that she says -
"A shauq se khaa liye nai mamma"
I was very happy that she used the word 'shauq' correctly in there.
And yesterday while I was putting her to bed, she was crying about something. She says in her most innocent voice -
"A ku dekho kitte aansoo aare!"
I was stunned. She always used aankh mein paani to denote her tears.
"Aap A ku daante tho A ke aankhon mein se kitta paani aara dekho" she would lament tightly shutting her eyes so that max amount of tears could flow out for her emotional black mail!
I was very impressed with the usage of the word aansoo. Not bad! Not bad at all.
My mother has always been worried that we emphasize too much on urdu that she is not getting any exposure to english at all. Our argument has been that once she gets into school she would pick it up in no time at all. That was exactly what she did but thankfully her major mode of communication remained urdu, especially with us. She would speak some sentences but would switch back to urdu since she could better express in that language [smug smile here from mom]. Even while speaking english she would insert urdu words in between.
"Maama A rakh the pencil in her pocket.." she would say since the word rakh came easier to her than its english counterpart. So anyways we went to Devon this week and she met a boy about her age in the masjid. That's when I got a glimpse of how much of English she had picked up. She would not budge from the language even though I told her the boy spoke urdu. Her patar,patar forced the boy's mom to ask if we spoke to her in English at home. Caused me to roll my eyes and say nai, nai - she's doing this for the first time. That caused the boy's mother to roll her eyes with a yeah right! you are lying...I tried subtly coaxing Lil A to switch to urdu talking to her in the language but it seemed like she was intent on flaunting her english skills and she did it in style. Not one urdu word came out of her mouth and I watched quite amused at the whole situation.
Then she sat down with the kids and started telling them a story.
There was this big dinosaur. He was really, really big. His name was Alama-dinosaur. He open his mouth and talk very loud. He has very big mouth. Two alligators come and try to catch alamo-dinosaur. But alamo-dinosaur very big. He scare the alligators...and on it went.
Not bad at all, right?
[btw Chicken Little is one boring movie. It was so senseless. Just when you settle down thinking it is one of those yawn-my-father-is-a-star-i-am-not-and-i-shall-prove-i-am-too kinda tear jerker only to be launched into a full scale sci-fi hogwash. Aliens vaporizing people, cutting through a field where the little ones are hiding, making all sorts of loud sounds which made my eyes pop out almost - bah! it was a royal bore and from where it was supposed to be a kids' movie I am stil thinking? Apart from the cute cartoon of Chicken Little, who I found very annoying, a cuter cartoon of the father, who I found even more annoying and ofcourse a fat pig who eats a lot and bumbles all the time and is the most annoying...what else made it a kids' movie is beyond me. Very bad!]
A review of a movie and a book!
Took Lil A to the wallace and Gromit movie. Well, well, well the creativity of some people never ceases to amaze me. The intelligent being in this movie happens to be Gromit, Wallace's pooch. He was without doubt the hero of the enterprise. This movie is stop-motion animated which is much harder to film than a conventional animated movie. The characters are made up of a synthetic substance called Plasticine, similar to clay and the animation is achieved by moving them fractionally in each frame. In a high action chase scene for example they apparently filmed a 40-sec scene after shooting for a week. So what is the big deal you ask? For that you have to watch just one character in the movie. The voice-less Gromit. The dog does not even have a mouth - just a pair of eyes and a big round nose - but most of all he has this raised forehead, which is used in collusion with the eyes to create such unbelievable expressions. I could not take my eyes of the dog. Each expression, each frame, I was blown over. It was fantastic as I watched him make a face at some of his master's [Wallace's] antics his forehead moving slightly to the left as his eyes rolled upwards, or realize the secret of who the were-rabbit is with the forehead shooting upwards and the eyes bulging a bit, or beating stress by relaxing the foreheard and the eyes and reaching for a pair of knitting needles - absolutely a treat to watch! A lovable pooch who keeps an eye on his brilliant master's ideas getting out of hand and extracting him from the mess that eventually comes out of it with a resigned expression. Move over Arshad Warsi, Gromit is me current favorite! yes every dog has its day.
Now that the Gromit-gushing is done with, let's focus on what seems to be a trend amongst animated movie's these days. I wonder if this is because the brains that go into the making of the film realize that the children are always accompanies by adults, so lets throw in some entertainment from them too in the form of adult jokes that will safely sail over the lil one's head. There are a few hilarious scenes in the movie which had me chuckling with Lil A watching seriously. One in which the priest is going through a mag title Nun Wrestling and hastily tries to cover up, another [and perhaps the most hilarious] where Lady Tottingham is strategically placed in front of two large lemons as she sighs - he does not seem interested in 'my produce'! Just for a fleeting second the scene is shown but boy! oh boy! was it a nice break from the lovable dog chasing the giant rabbit. Yes, the movie did get cheesy or too kiddish in the last reels but it was a good watch nonethless. Almost all of Gromit's scenes are classics. Do keep an eye on the dog!
After watching the movie, I wondered for a long time as to how people come up with fantastic ideas like this. To make a clay figure with no voice, no visible mouth convey so much expression - to come up with the idea of the raised forehead to do the talking - how brilliant a mind should that be. Nay, how creative I should say. I am reading [as part of my I-have-to-start-reading drive] a book titled 'Creativity'. The first couple of chapters talk about what creativity is. How it differs from talent or even brilliance. It seems to be set for an interesting read. I hope it doesn't get too bogged down with the details and gets on with the interesting topics of creativity amongst some 300 people interviewed in various fields. Details reminds me of the first book I read in this new drive of mine - the read more drive to be more specific ;-) - Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Namesake'.
The first couple of paras that I read, the detail was stunning and so to the point. A good start always is a good thing, nai? So I read it with gusto..though it tended to drag with the same details in some parts, it was never boring. Since it was the story of an NRI family, one could relate to almost everything they go thru. There was no poking fun at Indians kinda thing, instead it was more direct. This is what it is, you decide kinda thing! Sometimes I could feel myself squirming with embarassment at some of the things pointed to as being specific to Indians. Like a punch in the face. Just when you thought - hey this seems to be pointing too many things out, the book takes a drastic turn somewhere past the halfway mark. A tragedy turns things around and Lahiri takes a more relaxed approach. I was able to relax too instead of looking for another insult [that would be a strong word now] - I must say another finger-point in every para. It was highly perceptive though. Some people do have remarkable attention to detail and Lahiri is one of them. She makes us notice things we tend to overlook or even ignore and its not always a pretty picture and sometimes it turns out that it is indeed a pretty picture, you were just looking it in the wrong direction! Like for example, Gogol [the namesake's] resignation at always being surrounded by Bengali families and then around the end his reluctant admission that they had always been there - at every point in his life - celebrating with him his successes which might not have been the same without them - it was kind of touching though Lahiri manages to convey that in just a sentence. That was the tone of the entire novel. The flowing prose not pausing too much to deal with emotions. Instead letting the reader absorb what he could and move on to other details of how the grease from the cooking formed a thin layer on the containers in the kitched! A very good read and the ending was the best part of it. I just loved the way it ended. Once again conveyinglot of emotion but not a lot of wordy words. Just a teeny weeny complaint though. Except Gogol's mother none of the other women's characters are well developed. Lahiri seems harsher with her women character's than she is with the men. There are not one but two cheating and much married women one of whose husband keeps her lipstick with him while he is travelling so that he could feel her close to him. She in turn, twice a week removes her Wedding ring to make love to another man while her husband is doing the travelling. Well that is fine I thought and continued until I came to the second woman who does the same [yes make love to another man 2 designated days of the week] even as he waits for her as if his life depended on it at home. I was like - hello! What about the men? Haan? Haan? Lahiri doesn't get too judgemental about these women, but somehow I felt a wee bit uncomfortable. I would have loved a male cheating character instead of all the men being dutiful, cooking for their pregnant wives, adjusting for their sake, loving them unconditionally, never uttering a harsh word to them - yes it happens I am sure but 100% of the time? Yeah right! All in all a very good read. Highly recommend and I finished the book in about a week. Woo hoo! [ok ok so it was thanksgiving week!]
Hyderabadi Kachche Gosht ki Biryani
The making of 'authentic' Hyderabadi biryani they say is an art. I tend to agree with this concept since when I first started to make meself some Biryani, I was amazed at the results. I would not expound much on the results because I do not want to go over the horrors and spook myself once again. All I could say before I embark on this recipe is that I owe a heartfelt thanks to my dearest husband for always having been there for me. Some might say that it is easy to be there for a person you love, but let me assure you that even the strongest of loves would sway in face of a goeey mess that the 'better' half comes up with and serves you with Here's Hyderabadi Biryani for you. Can you imagine what must have gone through his 100% Hyderabadi brain where he must've devoured every kind of Hyderabadi Biryani from gosht to chicken to even Kalyani in his hometown? Full marks to him for gobbling it up with a 'Thoda gal gayee lekin maze mein bhoth achchi hain' trying hard to bite the gosht which was as hard as the rice was soft! The experiments did go on with various other foods - papad like rotis, sheera less gulab jamuns, hard-as-rocks ras malais, the watery saalans, the missing chicken in the chicken korma and such stuff. So dearest, I owe it to you.
OK now that the opening credits and also the special thanks section done with let's proceed to the opening scene. I gave up trying to make Hyderabadi Lamb Biryani after a couple of attempts. I did improve on the goeey-mess of the rice but the lamb would always remain undercooked. I had to watch DH struggle manfully to chew it without his strong jaw breaking. So I was very disheartened after a few attempts gave up altogether and stuck to making Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani that is so much more easier because chicken cooks in a jiffy and thus ends up being tender all the time. But I knew in my heart of hearts that to be able to ever call myself a good cook hailing from the Hyderabad area, I HAD to master the art of making the Hyderabadi Gosht ki Biryani. So started my research into this art form.
The first teacher I sought was my Mother-in-law. She makes some elaborate Hyderabadi dishes and what better person to go after than an expert in the field. So I accosted her. She gave me lessons but somehow I failed again miserably. It was the same story. The meat was anything but tender. If I put in too much dahi for it to cook, then the rice would be too soft, if not, the biryani would get burnt. Once again I let it go. That is until I discovered something. Something labelled 'The Meat Tenderizer'. And the rest they say is history. Now, not a daawat goes by without the Gosht ki Biryani and I tell you nothing can beat the satisfaction of Hyderabadi's praising your cooking. OK now off to the recipe.
The trick with gosht to be tender is that you need to marinate the lamb pieces atleast a day earlier. I tend to use boneless meat since there is not much cooking time, there is not enough time for the bones to shed their flavor. So better used some place else, but you could use meat with bones too. I do not. So anyways, I clean the pieces, cut them into about 1 inch pieces, making sure that they are not very small nor evey big. The marinate consists of just ginger-garlice paste, haldi and the savior-in-disguise meat tenderizer. The point to be noted here is that since the meat tenderizer already comes with salt, there is no need to add any salt to the marinate. You would add the same amount of meat tenderizer as you would do with salt. That is it - that is the work for the night. You put the marinate in the fridge and happily go to sleep trying to assure your husband [and more so yourself] that everything is going to turn out just fine. Please to ignore any nightmares that have to do with either the Lamb, Hyderabad or whether the tenderizer would do its job or not. Just sleep.
When you get up bright and early next morning, the firs thing you do [assuming you are making the Biryani for lunch] is to soak the rice. Now in traditional Hyderabadi Birayni the lamb:rice ratio is like 2:1. I have tried that ratio and no wonder the Hyderabadi's seem like such wonderful people - too mucn lamb in the system! Somehow that ratio seems like too much of meat in it. You could still keep the ratio if you are a big meat eater and nothing else, but if you enjoy the taste of biryani rice and the meat as you take a mouthful then 1:1 is the ration to go for you. Now wash the basmati rice and soak it in water for a couple of hours. Add saabit [whole] garam masala to it - like 2 elaichis [cardamom], a few laung [cloves] and a stick of cinnamon. Mix salt too. That shall make sure that your rice smells heavenly. The basmati rice that you get here is nothing compared to what one gets in India. The aroma of the rice is so wonderful that even when you are just washing the rice, you can smell it in the next room [ok ok some hyderabadi exaggeration here]. Compared to that the basmati rice here is so bad that even when it is cooking you can smell nothing fragrant. But we gotta do the best we can so that's what we shall do. Now set the rice aside and take the marinate out. Don't worry, it has not gone green!!
Now mix red chilli in the mixture. Depending on how much spice you eat, and how much you put in a curry of the same quantity, double it. Since you are gonna have rice all over this marinate, you have to make sure that the mixture is really spicy so that the biryani does not turn out too bland. Next add hara masala. Hara masala consists of chopped green chillies, chopped mint and chopped coriander. Make it a generous of mint and coriander since they also help with the aroma. Next comes the hard part. The tali hui pyaaz. Once again DO NOT use the readily available Fried Onion that you get in the market. Almost all of the brands have flour mixed into them and this will make your biryani - err gooey! So ..ahem..fry your own onions. I think I elucidated on the art of frying onions in my mirchi ka saalan recipe but I shall reproduce here for your benefit.
First slice the onions. Now these slices should be really wafer like and also be of the same thickness [or is it thinness]. If they are of variable thickness when you deep fry them in the oil, some shall burn out fast while the others are still raw. So make sure you beg,borrow or steal some appliance or person or knack to do this job. Once you got a decent pile of onion slices [a big pile, since the onions loose a lot of water when you fry them and err..shrink...so please to plan accordingly], deep fry them in lotsa oil. Keep a close watch on the onions, since they tend to burn very easily and that is not going to do anything for your Biryani or the aroma in your kitchen. Keep stirring them constantly and once they start changing color to a reddish brown, take them out and spread them over a paper towel and let them cool. Take some of the oil that you have used for frying and mix it with the marinate. The story with the quantity of oil is the more the umm..tastier...so use it according to how fat-free or fat-ful you want to make the recipe. But don't be too stingy with it since the biryani will turn out too dry.
Next comes one of the most important ingredients - the yogurt! Now preparing yogurt for the marinate is once again an art! It should be thick and creamy and just a little but sour. Not too much but should not be sweet, not by a long shot. That will make the Biryani tasteless. So if you are using fresh dahi you will be out of luck. Set it out atleast for 6-8 hours before you use it so that it has the requisite sourness. Now use this in the marinate. The quantity should be such that all the pieces of lamb are well coated. Now add some garam masala powder, lemon jucie, 3/4th of the fried onions to the marinate and congratulations - you are done. With the preperation that is. Now go and rest for a couple of hours, keeping the marinate outside to reach room temperature. You need it!
After the much needed rest, transfer the marinate in a wide and thick bottomed vessel. Make sure you can see the oil in the mixture. Otherwise it is too dry. Add some more oil if that happens. Simultaneoulsy in another big vessel take lotsa water to cook the rice. Boil the water first and when it starts to bubble add the washed and soaked rice. On second kani ie when the rice is starting to get soft but still has some hardness to it, remove the rice, drain the water and cover the marinate with this rice. Smooth the top with a ladle. Use 1/2 of the 1/4th fried onions left [yep this art needs some math too], more lemon juice, chopped mint and coriander and some saffron dissolved in warm milk. Now cover the vessel and make it secure so that no steam escapes. In Hyderabad that is done by sealing the lid with some flour! But if you have a tight fitting lid, then that will do its job. Now on full flame cook for about 5 minutes. If your stove top is too small and the base of the vessel too big then you need to keep rotating the vessel so that constant heat reaches it all over. After 5 minutes reduce the flame to less tham medium and keep rotating the vessel from time to time. You need to cook until you see steam escaping from the vessel. This signifies that the meat has been done and so has been the rice. The idea behind this is that the flavor that the meat gives out while it cooks in the form of steam is used to cook the rice and that is what makes Hyderabadi Biryani so special. Switch off the stove once you see the steam appearing and let it sit [in what is called dum] for about 15-20 minutes. I know you can't wait, but you have heard about what things happen to those who wait right? So thodi der intezaar and then carefully remove the lid making sure the escaping steam does not get you.
If you think you are done, then you are very wrong. Another art form takes over - that of mixing the rice with the gosht. You have to be very delicate about it so that the rice grains do not break. Remove, mix, serve, garnish with the left fried onions and serve! Your Hyderabadi Biryani is ready!
I am planning to make this tomorrow or Friday whenever Idd-ul-fitr falls. All of you are invited! Idd Mubarak everyone!
