- Author Unknown

My dad is from Baripada ,this small town in north Orissa. His late mother was one of eight siblings. His grand-mother and grand-father lived in this odd-shaped , aluminium tinned roof house with a typical-of-those-times courtyard in the middle of the house and a huge backyard with big trees ,dense foliage and a dhenki( an old style rice-mill). This house was located at the the top of a long winding road that sloped down over a little dirty river eventually into the ‘Muslim’ colony. So even though their house was just one level, because of the slope the bedroom was elevated and part of the house had to be supported by extra strong wood and also concrete.

My father’s grand-parents had 8 children; five daughters and three sons.  And each child had atleast 4 children each. Except the eldest brother, everyone lived in Baripada, around each other. So when we would take those over-night bus trips to visit the village, it would be one big ,happy, loud gathering of grand-parents, parents, aunts,uncles and cousins and a lot of camaraderie . I loved visiting Baripada so much. I felt like that was where I was a real child- free, loved and protected. I loved my dad’s grand-mother ,whom I called budhi aie (literally translated old grand-mother), so much. She was the glue that held the whole big family together. I never saw her husband. He passed away when my dad was still in school. She was a very active and talkative old lady back then. This is the early 90s I am talking about and she was in her mid-seventies may be. I would always be near her, hear her talk and we would all simultaneously laugh at some of her sayings and feel proud of how intelligent our budhie aie was.

The best parts of our village visits apart from family bonding would be the delicious food cooked by my dad’s aunt. She was actually Bengali and she was genetically blessed when it came to cooking fish specially. We would sit on the floor by the kitchen on mats, hot food on our steel plates and my dad’s aunt and ma first serving the males ,the sons and the little children first before serving themselves. After that we would retire to the bedroom, eat aata (sita-phal) ,gossip about everyone else  ,of course in a fun loving way, and soon plonk down for a afternoon nap. Then tea would be made early evening  ,followed by visits to aunts and uncles who lived next door really and cousins playing on the front porch.  Baripada has the best mudhi.Period. And we would have mudhi sara. Sara was the thick layer of cream that forms on the surface of boiled milk. My dad’s aunt would mix in raw onions and chilies in it and it would taste out of this world delicious! Another divine Baripada concoction was mixing mutton curry and mudhi and oh dear! there is ,still, nothing that can beat that. So good!

It was a beautiful,wonderful part of my childhood. We all loved each other and cared for each other. Sure we sometimes bickered and had arguments but in a big ,highly opinionated family one always runs that risk.  All I can think of when I think of it now is that really big urge to forget everything in my adult life and just go back to that playground of my childhood.

Now things have changed. That old sprawling house has been replaced by a more modern house. Less magical, more practical. Better plumbing, less old-timey. My budhie aie has long since passed, her three sons no more and the little cousins all grown-up ,married and living in different corners of the world. Baripada has changed. Better infrastructure, less simplicity, people have become more clever in their dealings and the saddest part is my great aunts are growing older with each passing day.

Even though us cousins are still in touch, trying to salvage the best parts of those magical days through social networking sites and through earnest attempts at being in touch, nothing can really bring back those days,can they?

In my heart that sleepy little town holds a very special place. Big houses, bigger courtyards, small lanes, generous helpings of food, cousins ,big family and family love and not a care in this world. What else could a restless little girl want?

One of my favorite pictures of my father holding me while I am seated on a scooter in the first room of that old house in Baripada.

Happy Friday everyone.

So yesterday evening I made Lemon Thyme Chicken for dinner.  And man was it easy, healthy and delightfully tasty or what !!

I did not come up with it myself and I am sorry I cannot seem to find the website now anymore. But all credit to the original person for such a easy week-night concoction.

I used three chicken breasts. Coated them with sea-salt and pepper. Pre-heated the oven to 400F , sprayed some cooking-spray on a glass-dish and put the chicken breasts in that.

Meanwhile, heated some olive oil in a pan and when warm added 3-4 cloves of garlic finely chopped. (I used fresh). Stirred continuously to prevent it from burning. Next added a little over half a cup of chicken broth, some lime zest and lime juice,oregano and thyme and stirred it all together. I did not measure anything after this .I did substitute lime for lemon and did not use fresh thyme. Made no difference whatsoever.

Then poured this mixture on top of the chicken breasts and put it in the oven for 35 minutes or till done.

And we had this with Angel hair pasta (thanks Pastaroni!) and it was delicious. I am so glad I did not add cheese or grease to our dish and my husband loved it. He loovved it! I later on used the mixture as soup and it was very tasty. Here’s to a easy weeknight dinner recipe !

Forgot, I did garnish it with some tomatoes and lime wedges. This is how it looked before it went in the oven.

Lemon Thyme Chicken ready to be eaten

Although, life will get pretty busy after 2 weeks. I will be starting a new job. A real job in ,hopefully, my new and lasting career. I will be working three days a week initially from 7AM-7PM. Yep! a big jump from my easy 5 hr shifts at Loft. I expect some big adjustments from my body and mind. I will also have to learn time management so that my performance in classes do not take a beating. And on top of all this, I would still like to spend time at home, play with my pets and salvage the fledgling social life I have now.

Next week is my last at Loft and will complete my 7 month stay at this job. My longest post-wedding return to America and my best over-all. I had interviewed for this position back in February of 2011 for just a Fri-Sat part-time position which was unfortunately not available then. But on my way out of the mall I also decided to step in to another store and got that job instead. So it did not suck as bad because the tech support job I was doing then was miserable and I wanted anything to bail me out of that place. I ended up leaving the other mall job in 2 months because a) it was a place where I saw how bad corporate policies can bring out human ugliness and b) my parents were coming to spend their first summer with us in the US and coupled with the first reason, made sense to just be with them for that one and a half months. But on the day of their departure back to India, I got a call from Loft saying that part-time position had opened up again and if I was still looking they would love for me to work there. There were a lot of things up in the air back then. I had enrolled myself in a nursing assistant class after much deliberation and thought, finances were a mess and everything in general looked uncertain. So, why not take up a part-time job and just bring in some money.  This is how I ended up working for a small but delightful place. Loved the girls, the clothes and the aggressive-free work environment. Learned so much about fashion, style and trends. A very good 7 months I must say.

A lot of the girls I liked are now moving to better prospects and so this new job could not have come at a better time. I am very happy for my friends moving up and working where they should. Everyone should eventually move on and move up. This is how a balance is achieved in the work-force in general right?

I will also miss the fabulous employee discount. I have not bought any clothes full-price in a long ass time. I still have one award to use.  We are doing this Associate Style-it board for ‘Now’ and ‘Later’ ,meaning pick up an outfit which you will wear at daytime and then add accessories to switch it up for a night time look. I wanted to show you guys what I wore. I am not a style diva in anyway, so do not be thinking like what am wearing is IN or the IT thing to wear, I just wore stuff I liked in the pre-Spring collection.

Mind you, these are pictures of pictures. Yeah and my manager caught me taking my own picture, how vain!! haha!

This is 'Now'. Fitted striped blazer, Starry Night Print Henley Shell, Marissa Modern Flare-Leg Chino Pants

'Later' look. Just removed the blazer and added a chunky bracelet

Everything can be found at www.loft.com

I had a drug-test for the new job yesterday and was also fitted for a N-95 mask. So exciting! I love every little part of the process. I am so glad I am going to be working almost 30 hrs a week during orientation and also get paid better for it. I am not a very money-minded person but I will be lying if I did not admit the prospect of not living pay-check to pay-check anymore is a relief.  We have decided to not get carried away and spend on little things but instead save up for the bigger things – a house, a new car, bedroom furniture. We absolutely need to have a new car first because we both have ended up finding jobs which are  not close to home ,so driving the mean green geo is just not a safe option anymore.

Yesterday we decided to have some food ordered cause the whole week we had been eating at home and the biggest of our principles does not hold a candle to a Friday evening. So we went out thinking we will get Chinese take-away, come home and be with the pets and watch ‘The Help’. But instead we ended up somehow going to Buffalo Wild Wings ,had a beer each and had a great time, just us. It might seem weird ,the just us part, but a lot of times we end up going out with friends and so this was a welcome change. After that John was in a mood for some pop-corn and since our microwave is broken now, we had to get ‘jiffypop’ and of course a packet of Hershey drops.

Today John took me out for my new job treat to Udupi South-Indian restaurant in Cary but he did not want to eat. He has got to have some sorta meat and while I felt bad he could not enjoy the delicious food, not bad enough to stop me from gorging. I thought I would have to come home and just lay flat on the floor like my cat. Driving back home in the mild rain was good, comforting.

It is my friend Megan’s birthday tonight and we are going out for drinks.

So you see guys, all is good in my world. I do not know if this means my blogs will not have much to offer in terms of entertainment, a general tendency to feel okay when you see someone else going through life’s share of shittiness. But sometimes we all need a good break and I guess this is mine.

I hope I finally make that desired start to my career.

look at those big curious eyes

ignoring mommy

I wore this to class yesterday and did not even need a coat, it is that warm and so feminine. I love it so much !

I love the light of the gloomy winter evenings too

close-up of front

the best photo-accessory -my cat!

I am going to try mentioning random details about myself too. Yes, Me, Me and Me!

• I never re-read my posts once before I post them. And that is why there are numerous typos and grammatical mistakes.
• Also, I hate grammatical errors a lot. If it were a dating rule, I would be my biggest turn-off.
• Speaking of dating, all the guys I have dated have been younger than me ,by months .( somehow not clarifying that made me sound like a pedophile)
• The names I use for my cat and dog are vinny-poo, otto-pottoh, ottuli, venison hehe!
• I am a bona-fide cat woman.
• I have noticed something disturbing in the way me and my parents express our love when we find something cute. We involuntarily grind our teeth! mmm creepy?
• I keep picking at the skin around my thumbs and they look positively ghastly.
• The bones in my thumbs make a weird clicking noise which always irritated the crap out of my mother.
• I think Indians are very dramatic and melodramatic. My husband thinks I am good at both of that. And not in a good way.
• One more thing I have noticed, we Indians take umbrage at the littlest of things at times and are very sensitive to any shape and form of India-bashing.
• With the above declarations having been made in the free world,hopefully, I will proudly say I love being an Indian.  It just took me another country and 4 years and counting outside my country to come to this.
• I love Indian regional language songs the most.
• I am a big snob when it comes to buying clothes. I was just telling a friend that discovering this is not unusual or scary, rather interesting that I am actually that person!
• I find my husband the sexiest in his grey sweat pants. Seriously. Also love his ‘happy-trail’ haha!
• I swear a lot. Enjoy using the ‘F’ word.
• I consider myself funny but am so shy that most people don’t seem to get it. I majorly enjoy sarcasm and dry-wit humor.
• I am very curious about the term ‘stereotypes’ and love studying these groups a lot.
• I wish I had a bigger butt. Not a humongous one. I have often caught myself staring at butts. Again, creepy?

And hey guys, a not so random detail  - this brand new nursing assistant (remember?) got herself a brand new job today. Eeeek! Okay, before I lose it all, I want to say the job details are still being worked out and so I don’t want to say more.

But go ahead and raise a toast for this happy girl today!!

I might have some brilliant news to share soon. I am very happy and excited about it but do not want to jump the gun quite yet.

We took down our Christmas tree and decorations on Saturday. I went up to our dark and cold attic for the very first time since we moved in a year back to put stuff back. I was very nervous and kept imagining someone/something to grab onto my leg as I went down. We went to watch the football game at our friend’s place and even though I do not get or like this sport, I thoroughly enjoyed the last 2 minutes of the Saints and 49ers (is that how it is written). Well , anyway, it was pretty exciting. I also saw Tebow for the first time after reading a lot about him but never got to see him ‘Tebowing’.

Sunday I stayed at home for the most and worked on assignments. Did run up to the pet store to get litter and cat food. But I wanted to finish my assignment so that I could watch the Golden Globes in peace. I love, love the award shows – the Red Carpet, the fashion, the celebs and just feel so proud when a actor who deserves an award walks up and delivers that powerful speech. Just very tingly.

I dislike Indian award shows .Not the performances and celeb-watching, just the actual award giving part. First of all, I feel it is very rigged and you have to cater to the wants of a superstar rather than a good performer and secondly if one superstar does not get the award he ‘wants’ at one award show, he definitely seems to get one at another bogus show. It is like they create award shows so that every needy/greedy actor gets atleast one award. I know my Indian shows, do not try to say otherwise. No wonder Aamir Khan does not attend any of these shams. Good for you Aamir !

But I love my Indian celebs and the gossips. Am but a normal little being.

I went to Target yesterday and they have such cute new dresses and shirts now. Must save for Target next. I feel like my wardrobe looks like half of the Loft store now. Well, no, not half. I do not have a huge closet really, but more than half of it is now gradually turning out to be from Loft and naturally since I work there. So since I feel like I have a burgeoning fashionista in me these days and I cannot seem to stop wanting enough clothes , I am going to divide my very very limited finances and get one item every two months. Well, every two months if expensive and every month if thrifted. Sounds good right? I have made a list of basics that every girl should have and am going to make sure I do not end up having way too many shirts but no good pants.

Also, have decided, even if I do not post every day, every now and then how about a picture of our pets? Why, cause they are the cutest and nicest things in our world. Have a good Monday everyone!!

a sort of smile

stoic

my little vinny-poo

I am back in school now. Just two light courses – English and Psychology. Had wanted to take three but could not get in and now I think it is just fine. I would surely like to finish pre-reqs faster for the real stuff later, but unlike my last school experience, I am really not in any major rush. I want to do well and also work as much as I can. My psychology class is online so I have to make sure I make my presence felt on discussion boards. While I enjoy psychology as a subject, I do not know how patient I will be about it as a 4 month long class. Reading the book requires focus and I am a very fidgety student, extremely restless. I always get the gist of the chapter though. I am trying to use my NC State experience as a guide. I thought I could tackle school here but no, it got better of me and I was a total train-wreck towards the end. So ,this time I am giving my capabilities a realistic shot.

Today was my first English class and this is a traditional classroom based course. It was a good mix of students. What I love the most about going ‘back’ to school in this country is that you will never feel singled out because of your circumstances. I felt 28 would be a bad age to reinvent yourself and I would not be surprised if I am in the younger crowd in my class actually. Not just age, you could go to school for any reason. Having a great degree and a great paying job is awesome but even more admirable is the guts of people who trade the comforts of a secure life to find out what they love doing. I wish I were bragging about myself incase you are wondering. I am just in awe of these other passionate people I have been coming across.

Anyway, I really did not want to have to study English but I think I already feel wiser knowing about comma, semi-colon and period usages. Like seriously, I am sure if my professor read this blog he would fail me!

John did the sweetest thing for me today. He gifted me a very neat little organizer/planner for my first day back to school and for the start of a new phase. I just thought that was incredibly sweet and thoughtful, he is very charming like that. I have already filled in some important dates and feel like one of those girls who has to now check her availability hehe!

I better try going back to sleep as well ! Have work in the AM and now school work as well. I have to tell you guys about this new show I just finished watching, so remind me!