Two things that stayed in mind

In the midst of a lot of work in office and the busiest quarter of the year was Diwali. My in-laws spent a week with us here and thankfully, because of their enthusiasm, Diwali felt like Diwali this time.
My husband and I were waiting at the airport to receive them and I noticed two things that stayed in mind. I love airports...I love the anticipation of travel, I love watching the people around and when I am at the airport time seems to fly faster than it would any place else. The flight from Kolkata to Dubai had just landed. I first noticed an elderly woman, on a wheel-chair, waiting for somebody to come to fetch her. The guy who was pushing her wheel-chair waited about five minutes and then started getting impatient. He was from Bangladesh and spoke to her in Bengali and asked her if she had the number of her relatives in Dubai. He then gave her his mobile phone and waited while she made her call. My heart went out to her when I watched her. The way she looked so lost, searched her big purse for the small notepad that had the telephone number in it, and her concentration while listening to the voice on the mobile phone. Reminded me of my grandmother..... Eventually her son (I'm assuming) came to get her and I heaved a sigh of relief. He may have had valid reasons for being late but can anything be more important than being on time when an old parent has come visiting?
The second incident was even more touching. Another lady standing close to me asked me if I was waiting for someone on the flight from Kolkata. She said that she was waiting for her son who should have been out by now. She then went on to say that he was a slow learner which was why she was worried about him. I asked her if he was very small to which she said that he was 26 years old and would surely respond if he heard his name announced on the speakers. While my husband went to the Emirates customer service to ask if an announcement could be made she told me that her son was coming home to Dubai for Diwali. About three months ago she admitted him into what she called a 'rehabilitation centre' ( My understanding is that it is a learning centre) in Kolkata. He was in a centre in Mumbai before that but she found that place to be very commercial in their approach. He seemed to be happy in Kolkata and this was his first ever flight alone. It was a busy night at the Dubai airport last Thursday and we were advised to wait another thirty minutes before making an announcement for him. About twenty minutes later her son came out and there was sheer relief, both, on his face as well as hers. The way they greeted each other is something I will remember for a long time to come.
In just about an hour at the airport that night I felt I had witnessed different aspects of being a mother and these two things will stay in mind....

Julie and Julia

I just got back from the premiere of Julie and Julia and loved every bit it. Meryl Streep is excellent, as usual, and Amy Adams (this is the first movie of hers that I watched) is very endearing. After stepping out of the cinema hall, having watched this movie, one is tempted to either go into the kitchen and cook something exotic or sit at the computer and update one's blog. I chose the latter :)
I could associate with every step of Julie Powell's journey into the blogging world - from selecting the template, to naming the blog and to the excitement on getting a comment. I also loved the tagline of the movie - Passion. Ambition. Butter. Do you have what it takes?
It reminded me of the days when I used to work on the Priya Tendulkar Talk Show that was telecast on Star Plus, this is way back in 1997. I used to put in long hours at Priya's place, which was also my office and would feast on the food cooked by her cook-cum Man Friday - Bahadur. He used to put a lot of oil in his food and I soon started feeling the inches around my waist. On complaining he used to say "Memsaheb....khaane mein tel jitna jyada utna khaana swadisht hota hain!" Julie annd Julia seem to follow the same philosophy - the more the merrier (butter)
The movie also reminded me, yet again, of what a stress buster cooking can be. I am now motivated and hope to start trying out the recipes in the Kashmiri Kitchen (a book on Kashmiri cooking a very dear friend gifted me last year)
Julie and Julia is a must-watch. Do not watch this movie on an empty stomach.

Online friends

There was a phase, not too long ago, when my husband was hooked on to some chatrooms and had made some new 'online friends'. They discussed books, movies and politics and he seemed to enjoy his interaction with them but I always wondered - Are online friends real friends?
Curious to know what the experience is like I entered an Indian chatroom on Meebo and got talking to a young medical student from Ahmedabad. We exchanged names and some generic details and soon this guy asked me what kind of a chat I wanted. Nervous about what to answer I said a general one. I must admit that my chat with him was extremely boring but what was unnerving was his level of dependance on his chat-mates. No sooner had I chatted him than he gave me his personal email ID and asked for mine. Not too comfortable with sharing my details I politely refused. Soon he got down to begging for it and scared the living daylights out of me. I have not visited Meebo since :)
Some of my husband's colleagues spend their spare moments in office chatting with their online friends. Some have fictitious chat names and a separate account for chatting purposes. I personally get very uncomfortable when I hear of something like this. I guess I am old fashioned in many more ways than I'd like to admit. But I cannot help but wonder - are online friends real friends?

My new car

Since my blog and the one and a half people who follow it have witnessed my transition from a nervous trying-to-learn-to-drive person to one who finally got her license in Dubai it seems only fitting that I post the pictures of my car on it. It's a Peugeot 207. It's my first big purchase ever but what makes it special is that it is a symbol of my success in overcoming a deep rooted fear. Now that I have been driving to and fro work for more than a fortnight, that too on a busy road like Sheikh Zayed road, I can confidently say that the only way to overcome fear is to attack it - persistently and to give yourself loads of positive reinforcement.

For my nephew who grew up in one day

Ever since I can remember, my cousin’s children Akshay and Avanti have been the apples of my eye and all through the years of my struggle in the media in Mumbai, they have been my reason for living. They are aged 25 and 21 respectively, but I always seem to think of them as kids, eager to take them out for a movie and some ice cream and fattening junk food thereafter. My nephew is studying Audio Engineering at SAE Byron Bay (Australia). After I heard about the controversial attacks on Indian students in Melbourne, I enquired after Akshay’s well-being and when I read the email he sent in response I realized that he’s no longer the little toddler I used to carry around what seems like just a few years ago. I guess I was so caught up in my own world that I didn’t realize that Akshay is now an adult and someone who thinks independently and expresses himself beautifully. As I read his mail I thought to myself " He sounds so grown up. Where was I when he was growing up?" I felt like I was reading an email from a friend or a colleague and I suddenly saw my nephew for what he is - another individual capable of taking care of himself and not someone I need to mollycoddle anymore.
I’m pasting part of his email –
“There is a bit of a media hype about the whole racism violence and I'm pretty sure that the attacks are more opportunistic than racist. However, I cannot deny the fact that Indians are easy targets because it is our nature to shut up and tolerate rather than defend ourselves with twice the power that we're attacked with. But all said and done, if you roam about in any part of this planet at unearthly hours all alone, you're bound to get robbed or beaten up!

Byron Bay is absolute paradise though. There is absolutely no hint of racism here and Indians are really respected for their modesty, simplicity and humility. Quite a lot of people have been to India and are in absolute awe of the place, and they love our culture. In fact people here respect and treat me a lot better than most Indians do!!!!”

Time flies and while we think we are in touch with the people around us, we may not in reality be as connected as we think we are. It takes something simple like this to drive the point home that time and tide wait for no one. Incidentally I am writing this on the last day of the month of June. I cannot believe that half the year has gone by already and the second half starts tomorrow!

Driving license and more.....

I finally passed my driving test last Monday, in my third attempt, and am now the proud owner of a Dubai driving license. It is the talking point of my life these days - how I drove beautifully in those seven minutes of my test and how polite and patient the examiner was etc. It is all a matter of luck, I guess. The biggest challenge is to actually drive on a day to day basis and to gain confidence on the roads. Somehow my brains seem to go on a walk when I drive and I manage to get honked at even when there are only two cars on the road out of which I am one.

As I write this I am reminded of what my younger sister had said to me a couple of years ago. I don't remember what we were talking about - probably about learning swimming or some such thing and she said "Everything needs practice, except failure"

I hope to write another post soon on how much I am enjoying driving in Dubai. The traffic laws are strict and hence there is much more discipline on the roads here than I have witnessed back home in Mumbai or Pune. So this is probably the best time and place for me to perfect my driving skills.

So beware the roads/people of Dubai.....here I come!

A divine folly

The biggest challenge about learning Arabic is to practice it in day to day life. I hardly get the opportunity to do that, but I make sure that I don’t miss the chance, if I get one.
There’s a popular Lebanese bakery close to my house – Al Reef bakery. It has the world’s best Falafel sandwich, shorma’s, grilled chicken etc. Another incentive for going there is the eye candy that place offers. Most of the chaps working there are great looking and that makes a trip to Al Reef something to look forward to :)
We buy Arabic bread from there often and I asked my Arabic teacher what I could say while asking for two packets of bread or ‘khubs’, as said in Arabic. The next day I went to Al Reef wearing my most confident smile and asked for two packets of Khubs in Arabic. The good looking man on the other side of the counter was speechless for a minute and I felt my confidence melt away faster than ice cream. I quickly repeated my order in English, picked up the bread and went home wondering what I had said wrong.

We had a good laugh in my Arabic class the next day when my teacher told me that I had asked for ‘Two Gods of bread’ instead of two packets of bread. The word I used was Rabbatain while I should have said Rabbtatain instead.
Needless to say I make sure that I am nowhere close to Al Reef bakery these days :)

A blast from the past

I heard from an ex-colleague from Zee TV today and the call brought back memories of the wonderful years I spent there, from year 2000 to 2004. One of my best memories is of the time when I was the Executive Producer of a series known as 'Chausath Panne' which was a series of 64 episodic short stories. We launched the series with a successful story - Dil Naa Jaane Kyon, starring Kirron Kher, Ritu Chowdhury and Vikas Sethi.
Since I was working long hours on that project I developed a great rapport with the show producers Rupali and Pintoo Guha. They had submitted the proposal of this show to the Zee TV team a couple of months earlier and it came to my attention when I was in the Ideation team of Zee, then headed by Vinta Nanda. Eventually they bagged the contract and the show went on air.
It is amazing how people remember the tiny things you do for them. Rupali used to always tell me how much it meant to her to have a show on air. She and her husband went on to produce many more shows for the channel. I'm not in touch with them too often now, but I'm sure they're doing well for themselves.
Sometime in 2005, when I was with Zoom TV, I got a call from Rupali saying that I had to watch the episode of their second show on Zee - Tumhari Disha. Apparently in that night's episode they were introducing a key character - that of a lady police inspector and they had decided to name the character 'Kanchan Koppikar', as their way of showing me how much they appreciated what I had done for them! I was quite embarassed about the whole thing but it was too late to do anything about it - the episode was due to go on air in just a couple of hours.
As luck would have it I missed the episode that night, but my parents and sisters watched it and they said they were almost rolling on the floor with laughter when the show ended with the actress, playing the inspector, look straight into the camera and say "Mera naam hain Inspector Koppikar...Kanchan Koppikar" followed by three cuts of her close-up and highly dramatic background music. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me when I heard that.
Many months later when I met my future husband, he said that in an idle moment he ran up a search on my name on Google and didn't know what to make of the results that read 'Kanchan Koppikar is an Inspector........'

Change

While we all know that change is the only constant in life I wonder how many of us stop and make note of the changes that happen in our life/routine/appearance/relationships in a very subtle manner but on an almost day-to-day basis.
The last few months have been hectic, to say the least, and the weekends are packed with household chores and social obligations. We attended two birthday parties (of two toddlers) over the last couple of months and realized that even the kind of social do’s we attend now are different from the kind of social commitments we had earlier. The demands on my time these days, due to the Arabic classes I attend after work, means that there is no time for exercise and I can feel the inches I am gaining, as much as I hate to admit it publicly.
I arrived in Dubai on May 16th last year and was totally lost in this city and was wondering if I would ever be comfortable here. But one year down the line this place feels like home.
We are expecting a new recruit to join our department today. She was made redundant, four months ago, from her earlier place of work and has been fortunate enough to get this job and today is a new beginning for her.
The point I’m trying to make is that circumstances change and the best thing to do is to go with the flow. Good things happen and then there are bad phases followed again by good times.
The last few evenings have been pleasant for this time of the year and I was telling my husband that I would give anything to have this weather stay and he said so casually that it must change, it is normal for the weather to change and that’s what got me thinking about how much changes around us constantly and we do not even realize it.

Of chakki fresh atta, theplas, helpful neighbours and Kitchen Table Wisdom

Since I am born a Mangalorean I am a complete rice eater. At my parents house 'rotis' are not made at all. We used to make them earlier, for Doogie, our dog. After Doogie's demise last year my Mom stopped making them altogether. Given this background it is not surprising that I hardly make good rotis. I have been working on my roti making skills lately, but the biggest hurdle in my path was getting the right kind of 'aata' in Dubai. The search for the 'right aata' has been a matter of great discussion with almost everyone and anyone who seemed inclined to help, but alas nothing worked. For some reason Pilsbury too has not done the trick for me.

One weekend, sometime last November, my husband and I bumped into a young couple who had moved into our building, infact on our floor, that very evening. They too were from Pune - our city, and so there was an instant connect with them. Over the last five months the connect has grown stronger and now we are in touch with each other on a daily basis. We get together for impromptu dinners or breakfast and if any of us has cooked anything special we make sure it is sent across to the other. A couple of days ago, my new friend Rasika told me that she had found the best place to get 'aata' from in Dubai. It was from a flour mill which offers home delivery services promptly and at a very reasonable rate. She offered to place an order on my behalf since I am on a hectic schedule these days. Last night my seach for the 'perfect aata' ended and I now have two kilos of chakki fresh aata in my kitchen, all thanks to Rasika.

Incidentally, less than a week ago, I happened to catch my friend Meena online and asked her for her Mom's recipe for Theplas. I love Gujarati cuisine and Meena's mother makes the world's best theplas. Could there be a better start to my perfect aata? I made theplas for dinner tonight, under the watchful eyes of Rasika and they turned out really nice. I am sure they'll get better everytime I make them.

I'm reading an interesting book titled Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen. This book is about the moments of everyday life which help us connect with the deeper meaning of our lives. One of the points Rachel makes in her foreword is about how a sense of loneliness, alienation and isolation is prevalent in our culture because of the breakdown of the social networks that used to give us a sense of connection and community. And this loneliness is the real epidemic in our culture. I was thinking about this point Rachel made and realized that it is so true. I guess I am lucky to be discovering the joy of having helpful neighbours, whom you know you can count on at all times. Simultaneously, I am lucky to be exposed to the simple and undiluted joy of chakki fresh aata and of a tried and tested recipe.

Rachel also mentions that in the earlier days the kitchen table was the place where life stories and wisdom was shared with everyone. Well..the kitchen table may not be the place now, but I could not help but equate my blog and the blogs I follow to the Kitchen Table where one's experiences and stories are shared and a connect is made.