The Lock Bridge

I have realized that locks are to European bridges what threads are to ancient banyan trees in India.

There is an old bridge here (okay, not too old – built in 1868) in the city that has hundreds, probably thousands, of locks on it. A refers to it as the lock bridge (though it is actually called Eiserner Steg) and loves to walk across it. The locks fascinate her. She will touch them, feel their weight, the smooth, shiny surface of some, the roughness of time and rust on others, and trace the names engraved on them. I get it. If it did not look so weird, I would do it too. Just think, how many stories are those, locked onto that bridge; how many people, hoping for permanence in their relationships. They fill me with a kind of heartache.

I wonder about the hope and love they must have felt, the promises they must have made to each other when they placed a lock on that bridge and threw away the key. People even lock their locks on to other larger ones, tying the success of their relationship to the success of strangers. Most locks represent romantic love. Which invariably leads me to wonder how many of them possibly regretted doing that, and wished they could take back their promise. At the end of the day, life is unpredictable and really, who knows what would happen and how people change based on their circumstances.

I keep telling S to change the narrative somewhat and put one on there for him and A. Dads and daughters, I mean, how precious would that be. Or, maybe all three of us. Of course, she knows we both love her, but this would be something physical, something tangible – a symbol of our love and commitment to her that she could touch. But then again, the idea of tying that symbol to something we cannot count on to be permanent (yeah, sorry, I can be something of a pessimist) – that is a deterrent.

Also, the keys – they bother me a lot. The thousands of them sitting there at the bottom of the river, lost, forgotten, silted over. It is like, you reached that pinnacle of your love for someone, made that promise, and forgot about the thing that makes your relationship work. It is my personal opinion that throwing away the keys to any working lock is a very bad idea. And anyone who has ever been locked out of their house will vouch for this.

From Sambaar to Sadya

The first time i cooked, I was in class 8. It was the summer vacation and I had gone to be with my mom in Goa [Aside: My mom worked in Goa for a few years. My brother and I lived in Chennai with my dad and went to Goa during our vacations. They tried very hard to get my mom transferred to Chennai since my dad’s wasn’t a transferable job. But it was in vain, and she had to quit and come back. But that’s a whole other post, maybe even a two-part]. My aunts, my mom’s two sisters, had also come over for a couple of weeks. It was they who decided that it was time I started cooking. And so they taught me to make rice and sambar.

I don’t remember loving it. It was just something that my aunts taught me how to do, like say, sewing a button, or tying shoelaces. And it was not like i cooked on a daily basis after that. There were times where I would cook a dish or two (read rice and dal)…or make (really clumpy) dosas. Once I remember making a mix-veg gawd-awfulness for my brother and his friend who had come over for combined studies, and unwittingly stayed for lunch. I remember making interesting dishes for S.U.P.W* class! Rasgullas, vegetable balls in chilly garlic sauce, and god knows what else. But all those times, I don’t recall any strong emotional connection with the food except that of hunger.

I think I really attempted cooking on my own during my PG. And I was horrible…by which I mean terrible, terrible! And all my friends were wonderful cooks, whipping up delicious meals quickly and effortlessly. I felt like an absolute idiot, and for a time was so conscious of my terrible-ness (terribility?) that i totally refused to cook anything beyond Maggi.

Then, somewhere i got over it. By the time I moved back to Hyd. to work, I was looking forward to having a kitchen of my own to experiment in. And that really is when i started turning out decent, edible dishes. I enjoyed playing with flavors. It helped that I had a willing guinea pig in the form of my flat mate. To my parents’ great amusement, I would call home every once in a while to get my mom’s recipe for Chole or dad’s recipe for fish curry. It was also around this time that I started dreaming of cooking a sadya.

But here is the problem: I hate following recipes (which is just a nice way of saying that i’m too lazy and undisciplined to follow one). Except when I’m baking, i usually never bother actually looking at quantities for the ingredients. Most times, I’ll just skip straight to the method section and figure the ingredients along the way. I’d like to attribute this aversion to one thing I met continuously when i was learning to cook: the damn “salt to taste.” The way I figure, you’re anyway giving me your recommendation for all other spices, so why can’t you for the salt? (And the “preheat oven to 180” is what kept me away from baking for the longest time.)

This random, look-only-at-the-Method-section approach worked fine for most things. But a sadya comprises traditional dishes, which need to taste a certain way. You know what that means: I’d have to follow a recipe. As you can imagine, the thing kept getting “put off till next year,” if you know what i mean. Until, that is, this year. Starting this year, we decided we’re going to celebrate all the festivals at home, because, you know, we wanted Maatu to grow up with memories of these festivals, just like we did. And guess what is a major Malayali festival? And guess what is a big part of this Malayali festival?** Yes, the time had come for me to face the sadya.

The first step was to decide on the menu. Even i knew a 24-dish sadya would be madness (and/or suicide, considering this was my first attempt at a sadya). But still, i decided on an ambitious menu hoping i would at least land on a tree***: parippu, sambar, olan, cabbage thoran, avial, pulinji, maanga curry + rice and curd, and paal paayasam. Of these, i’d only ever made sambar and olan before (not counting parippu, curd and rice, because i would be frauding by counting them).

I started looking up recipes…and let me just tell you, it is scary, like terrifying, how many ways there are for making each of these dishes. How in the hell was I supposed to pick one?! I would read them, and try to imagine the taste, and try to compare that imaginary taste with the memory of the taste of the same dish when made by my mom/my mil. Why didn’t I just ask them, you ask? Because i wanted to do it all on my own (and also because i’m an idiot, but the former reason sounds more grand). When it came to pulinji, i gave up the search and finally asked my mom. I was still reading through recipes on the night before Vishu! But since the ingredients were roughly the same, i had the forethought to cut the vegetables in advance.

Vishu morning, I wake up at 5:30, and after the whole Vishukkani thing, plod into the kitchen. I must have coffee if i don’t want to burn, cut, and scald myself, i decide. While the milk is boiling for the coffee, i figured i’ll just prep – you know, take stock of my surroundings, etc. There’s the turmeric, i’ll need that; the chilli powder, there’s enough, jeera, dhania, am not likely to need but we’ll see, sambar powder, almost finished, salt, i’ll definitely need that “to taste” and yes, suga…wait, what?! sambar powder, nearly over?! Where am i going to go for that now?! its 6:00 am!!! *panic panic* Google search “instant sambar powder” *panic panic while the results load* Edible garden – yeah her recipes are usually simple. Fresh sambar powder recipe. Yes, this sounds do-able. Wait a minute, what’s this – Vishu Sadya Recipes. Oooo. Ummmmm.

Suffice to say, lunch was ready by 9.00 am, and paayasam was ready by 10. Everything tasted good (if i may say so myself). We had loads of leftovers which finally got done only by the weekend. But really, how very satisfying. I had confronted the sadya, and now we were friends. I can finally say that i cook good.

Hope everyone else had a happy happy Vishu too.

 

PS: A very, very special thanks to Nags. I followed your avial (with really minor variations), cabbage thoran and maanga curry recipes. And of course, the instant sambar powder.
And also to S, for cutting vegetables with me at 11:30 pm the night before, and for motivating me like no-one else could have.

[Notes]
*Socially Useful Productive Work. What? You never had it at your school?
**The answers are Vishu, and Sadya, btw.
***Aim for the sky and you will at least get to the top of the tree.

About a Weekend a While Ago

This was a mail I wrote to my aunt while I was in the US. It was the first time I was in the US, and that too on my own, and my aunt had complained that I wasn’t writing in and updating her about what I was up to. So finally, to appease her, I decided to send her a mail about one of  my weekends.

Hi M’ammai,

Thought i’ll be good and write you a little mail – a little mail about my weekend.

i had a great weekend. Went out and saw a lot of things. Remember the DIY San Francisco trip I was talking to you about? Well, i achieved that and it was really ossum! i think it was one of the most satisfying and happy days of my adult life.

so anyway, on to the weekend activities themselves.

i’ve told you S’s friend P is here in Sunnyvale, and is acting as my chaperone for my three week stay here. He was supposed to come and pick me up on saturday morning. we were supposed to go to the monterey bay aquarium which is about 70 miles from my hotel and also explore the area around it. so i woke up like a good girl at 8 am and got ready by 9. He came to pick me up at 10.20 am.

We first went to Pebble Beach and on the 17 mile drive. It was quite scenic…along the coast, but the coast is kinda up and down, so it was a good combination. i’ve taken a bunch of pictures, will show them to you. The only thing i didn’t like was that when we went to the beach, it was smelly. i think it was all those sea weeds that were on the shore and probably rotting. :S It was Not pleasant, but after a point we either got used to it or it was gone. Either way, we didn’t particularly miss it, so all was good again. By the time we finished with the 17 mile drive, it was lunch time. So we went into (i think) the city and got some lunch at this place called Carrows. It was good, but, as always, the portions were too big. i don’t know what it is with Americans, but their portions are HUGE! We plodded and plodded and finally somehow finished it. P ordered a strawberry milkshake, which we ended up splitting, and I’m telling you, it was the yummiest strawberry milkshake I’ve ever had. *sigh*

Anyway, it turned out that the restaurant was only about 300m from the aquarium. So, after lunch, we went there. The aquarium is awesome! And quite the BIG! Sadly, i don’t think my pictures have come out very well cuz there wasn’t enough light…and well…cuz i don’t know how best to take pictures with my camera in that light…Anyway, i’ll show the pictures to you and you can imagine the rest and then decide how awesome the aquarium was.

By the time we finished with the aquarium, it was nearly 5:30pm, so we headed back. By 8, i was back in my hotel. The next day had to begin nice and early. The plan was to take the bus at 8 am. So, all things considered, i had to be awake by 6 – 6:30am.

However, in spite of wake up calls and multiple alarms, i woke up only at 5 mins to 7. After a mad scramble, cuz I’m much slower than that in the morning, i was able to make it to the bus stop in time for the bus. The bus took me to a train station. i took the train (Caltrain) to San Francisco. That took about 1.5 hours although it is actually only about 50 odd miles away i think. I took the 9 am train, so i was there by about 10:30-40. After that, i started walking. i’d done my research the night before and already knew the places i wanted to see. i also had the distances and directions all noted down. Aaand i was armed with a map. 😀 AAaaand since I was wearing shoes, I was all prepared for the walk.

First, i walked to Union Square. It was not as big as i expected it to be. i mean when you hear “Union Square,” you imagine this big space with a fountain in the middle, a few statues, wooden benches and lots of lovely old fashioned lamp posts. But really this Union Square was nothing of the sort. It was kinda small to begin with and then it was further dwarfed by the big huge buildings around it. And it had very modern looking lamp posts and shiny steel benches. No fountain, but there was a big pillar with a statue on top of it. And it was nice. There were lots of people sort of taking in the sun, a bunch of artists who were displaying their paintings and general art work, a little cafe on one side where you could get some coffee and cake i imagine (i never tried the cafe). i just kinda sat there on a bench and looked around. After a long while of doing that, i got up and walked around and took a few pictures.

After that, i proceeded to Chinatown. i think i was walking up the main street that goes through Chinatown, cuz it had this big gate n all that was like…i don’t know… a gopuram? i don’t know how else to describe it. And there were also a couple of stone lions guarding the gate. Predictably, Chinese shops lined the street. It was not too crowded though, and no dragons popped out at me. It was lunchtime and i was starting to feel quite hungry, what with all the walking n all. So, i kept an eye out for Chinese restaurants that i could imagine myself eating at. i finally ended up eating at this restaurant called …..wait for it….Chinatown restaurant 😀 about halfway up the main road i was just telling you about. It’s a nice place; old…the furniture showed the scars that they had acquired over time. And i went at peak lunch time i think, cuz the place was bustling. The interiors were not very Chinese. Not like when we go to a Chinese eatery in Chennai. These people didn’t feel the need to fill up the place with Chinese art and lampshades to convince their customers that they were Chinese. It worked out for them i guess. The staff was quite busy, but they managed to take good care of me anyhow. i had a to wait just a tiny bit more than normal for them to take my order, but other than that everything else was smooth. i had some pork dim sums and the chef’s choice of chow mien (which had some 2 or 3 types of meat in it i think). And at the end of the meal they gave me a free cup of ice cream (i don’t know what flavour it was, i think it may have been green tea…but whatever it was, it was very very nice). They also gave me a fortune cookie. i know i know…you want to know what my cookie said…nothing exciting actually. i got lectured by a cookie…something about true value is in service or something like that. i’ve saved the slip of paper but i don’t have it with me so this will have to do for now. So anyway, after lunch i started walking again.

The plan was to walk till Pier 39. So, i walked right through Chinatown. That was cool. You could see the China part of town tapering off to give way to more Italian and American stuff. There was one row of just restaurant after restaurant offering Italian food. Then there were these cute little cafe like places that had nice tables outside. These looked more…i don’t know…spacious, and maybe cozy…i think. You decide when you see the pictures. 🙂

San Francisco is very conscious of its tourist population i think. Either that, or it’s generally fond of flowers…cuz, every once in a while, you’ll have these flowerpots overflowing with….yes…flowers…bright and beautiful and happy and colourful…hanging from the lamp posts, and they generally made my walk very pleasant and nice. And it definitely helped that it wasn’t too hot or sunny.

Then as i was walking along i saw this Huge church. So of course i had to go inside it. It was the Church of Peter and Paul. i went inside and took some pictures of burning candles. 🙂 then continued walking towards my destination – Pier 39.

Pier 39 is a nice, busy place, Full of tourists. It’s also famous for sea lions. They have these floating deck kind of things…at least some 10 of them, and the sea lions come there to sightsee us humans. You should hear them bark and howl at each other. Makes you wonder what they think about us. They are kind of cute and goofy. Some of them will be chumma rolling around on those floats. It’s fun to watch them…at least for a while. It may get annoying at some point, but i didn’t stay That long so…all good. i walked till the very end of the walkway on Pier 39, stood there for a little while admiring the scene…you can see Alcatraz from there and the Golden Gate, and the fog rolling over one or both. 🙂 i saw the fog rolling in. It was nice, but cold, so i walked back and to the aquarium. Yes, they have an aquarium here as well. This one has a tunnel. But it’s kinda small…tiny, compared to the other aquarium i went to. And i went to the petting section here as well. Did i mention that the other aquarium also had a petting section? Well, it did, and i went to that one too. Ask me later what underwater creatures i petted: D

After the aquarium, i walked around pier 39, followed my nose to an ice cream shop and got myself chocolate ice cream in a chocolate fudge waffle cone (there was a brownie somewhere in the name there, but i just can’t remember where it fits in now). The ice cream was yumm…and quite big. i walked around with the cone for a bit, went to the sea lions and watched them for a little longer, then, since my legs were starting to ache, i went looking for a bench, found one, and sat down for a while.

By the time i finished my ice cream and felt sufficiently rested, it was already about 5:30. So i got up and started walking towards Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s shamefully close by :D. i think about a 5 minute walk away. So i took my time walking and did a little shopping. A wiser person would have finished their shopping, but no, i am after all my parents daughter, so have left a little bit of shopping for next Saturday :D. Let’s see how that works out. Anyway, i kept walking and eventually reached the beach near Ghirardelli square. He he he! No, i did not buy any chocolates (i think i just heard you making that “I’m shocked” sound). But i did take a picture of it, and of a Ben & Jerry’s sign (cuz i saw that and i remembered you, so i took a picture of it for you).

i sat there on the beach for a little while, freezing and literally shivering in spite of wearing a thick jacket and waiting for P, who was supposed to join me in the evening. He had a football game in the morning and said he would want to rest but also come with me, so i told him to rest and join me in the evening. He got there only by about 8 pm though. ( i shook his hand when he eventually arrived and he jumped in his seat and nearly out of the car cuz my hands were like ice. That’s in spite of getting a cup of hot chocolate (from Ghirardelli) to unfreeze my hands while I was waiting for him).

Then, we went to Lombard Street. That’s the extremely steep followed by extremely crooked street. Very very nice. That part of the street is one way as well, for obvious reasons. Apparently, people get scared when they are going up the street. i wonder why, cuz although it’s a one way, they only allow one column of vehicles so everyone goes very slowly both up and down this road. i can imagine it getting a little scary for the driver though. Hmm…the sad part was that it was already dark when i got there, so i couldn’t get any nice pictures. 😦 But then i’m planning to go there again on Saturday. Let’s hope that works out.

After that, we headed back toward San Jose. Had dinner at this place called Chilis. i ordered some steak that came with mashed potatoes and other yummy stuff, but i was so tired by then that i couldn’t taste anything. Finally, i reached my hotel room at 11 pm and managed to just about change before I crashed.

So THAT was my weekend. Of course i have tons more to tell but i dont feel like typing more. The initial idea was to send you a little mail, so i’ll stick with that. 😛 Hope this makes up for my not writing last week.

Alright then, that’s all for now.

Ta!

love,

Me

PS: Please to kindly yignore spelling/grammar yerrors. Thanks ya.

Magick!

*Warning : Sappyness Aplenty*

I needed to write about magic. The magic of Vishu. That was a long time ago. The week I went home – beginning of April. And now its mid may. But that’s ok. I have 25 years of memories to fall back on I guess…hopefully it shouldn’t be too difficult to make something up.

So yeah. It’s always been that for me – magic. The festival of Vishu I’m talking about. Always magic. There have been people in my life who haven’t really understood nor appreciated that. But maybe it’s not their fault. Maybe it’s me; maybe I failed to describe it properly to them. Then again it’s difficult to describe that kinda magic. I remember while watching Vaanaprastam, the word ‘medieval’ suggested itself to me. Not that the movie was medieval, altho it did have some aristocratic nonsense happening. I don’t think I want to go into a review of that movie. It’s a difficult movie to review and then it’s been a while…like years…since I watched it so…all in all not an appropriate time for a review. But yeah a few of those shots seems to take us to another time. A time before electricity, filled with the romance of the light from an oil lamp. Can you not see it? A lone lamp’s golden light pouring out of a single small window on a dark night with little or no moonlight. There’s this weird feeling I get when you imagine that…it’s the same feeling I get when I watch the evening lamp being lighted when I go to Kerala. For those few moments, that lamp is Midas and everything the lamp light touches turns into something exquisitely beautiful. Hmm…Anyway…

What I was actually trying to get at was that the same kinda magic i experience every Vishu. Maybe it helps that I’m always invariably half asleep. For those who don’t know, Vishu is the mallu new year. It’s that fascinating festival where if you are one of the younger ones, you get money from all your elders, and if you are one of the older ones, then just too bad for you…you get to give! 😀 I always wait for Vishu, cuz I’m the youngest in my house. 😀 But really that’s not all. I mean I will understand if you don’t wanna believe me when I’ve just successfully given a very convincing other reason. But still, try. Cuz you see some things just don’t change over the years. I have had the same feelings wash over me every year for quarter of a century. It’s amazing really. The night before, you know what you are going to see the next morning. There’s really nothing new, nothing unexpected. And yet, when my parents wake me up, I feel strangely excited, like I’m just about to see the greatest magician ever perform the most fascinating of his tricks. They would wake me, cover my eyes (over the years, my parents have taken turns), lead me to the pooja area and then ask me to open my eyes. The funda is that since it’s the beginning of a new year, you want the first things you see to be signs of prosperity, so that you see plenty of it for the rest of the year. its sorta like a harvest festival, so the signs of prosperity are harvest related things, like fruits and vegetables and flowers and coconuts (since we are after all mallus, in fact they are used as lamps) and grains and some gold and some silver (don’t go imagining treasure chests…these are just for the sake of it. just a little ring or trinket or something will do. we usually keep one of my mum’s chains or something). The whole thing is arranged in front of the pooja, with the lamp facing the east.

And every year, without fail, when I open my eyes and see the arrangement I’m awed (for lack of a better word). There really cannot be a better way of ushering in the New Year, they definitely got their concepts right. To me that vision of the entire arrangement bathed in the rich golden light of the oil lamps as I try to focus through my half sleepy eyes is one of the most beautiful ever. It kinda silences my brain for a while (and if you know the kind of person I am, you’ll know how big a deal that is). There are no thoughts, just that nearly divine vision. My parents still direct my attention of every detail, as though I am a child still, and honestly I more than don’t mind. Its all part of the magical moment. My mom’s voice softly directing my eyes towards the flowers, fruits, and all the other stuff. Once you see it all, you are supposed to close your eyes and pray, give thanks. In all my 25 years I don’t think I have even once, cuz my brain is still fascinated. Closing my eyes makes no difference, cuz for the next 10 mins or so I won’t see anything else. Once you pray, you go out, look at everything around you. And you know something, everything else is coloured by that one vision, everything looks beautiful. I’d say that’s pretty powerful magic. But then again, maybe it’s just me.

That Long Overdue Post

About time now that I posted about my trip.
Well to begin with it was a weeklong. I left the day after Christmas. Christmas was a bit hectic but it was fun…and lots of eating. I think that’s the thing with these festive occasions. One eats in one day what one would otherwise take at least three days to consume.
Major Christmas lunch happened at my sis-in-law’s place, followed by a major Christmas dinner at our place. Yes I know its crazy, but that’s how it happened. Everyone left only after midnight, and then by the time we cleaned up and all that it was quite late. And of course, office the next day. I’d wanted to pack before going to bed, but then was too tired. Man! I came back in the lunch break and packed…then I went back to office, and then left early, came back, packed whatever I’d forgotten in the afternoon, which turned out to be half the things. Dad came early too, dropped me at the airport. But the sight from the plane…man! Ok I shall not go into that again.
Flew Deccan, which means little or no leg space (yes AFJ, I can see you nodding), and I’m just a little tall. So I was mighty happy when no one took the seat next to me. Just stared out…first at Chennai, and then eventually after 11/4 hrs at Hyderabad. That city is very strangely planned I’m telling you. My Hyd friends are gonna hate me for this, but seriously, while Chennai looked like a huge lake of fire in a black black sea, Hyd looked like a series of puddles. Lots of little puddles spread over a large area. It was therefore strangely beautiful. (Ok mamu put down that shoe…shoes don’t get along with computer screens) See, then again, I would also reluctantly call Hyd my second home. (Reluctantly, for political reasons.) It felt so good to see Hyd from the sky. Until that moment the fact that I was actually going to be there for a whole week hadn’t hit me.
Nor did I realise how cold Hyd was till I stepped out of the aircraft. I mean I knew my lovely sultry beautiful Chennai was bound to feel hot in comparison with Hyd. I was sort of prepared – I carried a sweater (you can’t imagine how ridiculous that looked when I was standing in the Chennai airport). Inspite of that though, I complacently stepped out of the airplane thinking, “yeah it’ll be cold, so what?” My next thought was “Damn!!” as I scrambled to put on the sweater. And you know how it is when you scramble: first I put it on and realised that my bag strap was stuck, so I took it off and put it on again and then realised that the stole was stuck in between, and I feel cold rather easily so every time I took off the sweater I thought I’d just freeze. The auto ride back to Campus!!!! The autowala was trying to make pc with me, and I was trying to reply in a coherent non-teeth-chattering manner. And I swear the campus is at least 2 degrees colder than the rest of Hyd. But I was there…I was home – uhmm…I was in my second home.
There are at least a million other memories from that one-week, just like any other week is made up of a million other memories. Like sleeping in a sweater+shawl+blanket…like discovering Eat-Street…like long bike ride…like having your companion sing “you pick the time…. tick tick tick tick” while watching Harry Potter on Imax…like lunching on cup noodles at 6.00pm in amicable silence (or almost) …like running out of the room and into the cold cuz there’s no signal in the room…like watching friends bbq meat on made at home (hostel more like) equipment…(yes I have immensely talented friends…they’re the coolest!)…like asking people to bring rabbits for you when they come from the U.S…trying to get thru to parents at midnight on new year’s eve to wish them and getting frustrated cuz all lines were jammed…laughing because you know you are so high you cannot walk straight…asking for the fruit punch when its right in front of you….fireworks at 2 am…(I remember thinking I want to light at least two flowerpots placed side by side…the others wouldn’t let me…said it was too dangerous blah)…endlessly making fun of mamu…explaining how arrows on an agarbatti stand are actually the representation of a tribal God…going three together on a bike…going to a shop and realizing both you and your friend forgot to bring wallets…poori-chole in the mess (yes Rita! Feel jealous)…. man! And so many many more little memories. And so many other things I wanted to do didn’t get done…but no matter, never mind. Fun is fun.
Almost missed my flight back. Well not actually. I thought I would miss the flight as I sat all tense in the auto on my way to the airport, only to discover that the flight had been delayed by an hour (which eventually turned into 2). There were lots of kids on board. At least 5 – ranging from a few months old to about 7 years old. The older ones were fine – if you consider hyperactivity ‘fine’. The babies were having a bit of trouble. One in particular was bawling away…and since it’s a small aircraft (and I really do mean small), it’s not easy to block out the noise. But then the other kids took it upon themselves to entertain the baby. They were quite effective actually. Also it was entertaining to listen to them. One girl and boy in particular were competing with each other in terms of prosperity. Unfortunately couldn’t hear what the boy was saying but the girl was talking about the number of houses she has…she started with a modest 4 and ended with 700 lakhs. Yes, that’s right. She’s rich I guess 😀
Well then that’s it for now.
Sorry about the looooooooong post. But its only once in a while that I write this much, so I’m sure you’ll excuse me. *Sigh* What a happy beginning of the year!