One Fleeting Moment

Sometimes, just because I am bored of the same old routine of dal-chawal dinners I rustle up an impromptu gourmet meal and land impressing myself in the process. Last night it was:

• Italian sausage glazed with balsamic vinegar, vermouth and brown sugar
• Green beans with lemon zest
• Costco cheese and asparagus stuffed ravioli with Trader Joe's Arabiata sauce

Labels: Dinner

Spring/summer came early this year and with it the urge to pile everyone into the car and drive off into the sunset, or at least drive off until the Gherkin yelled for a break. Thanks to a Groupon that was dangerously close to expiry, we found ourselves at Williamsburg, VA checking  into Colonial Crossings along with half a dozen other people who had bought the same groupon.  This was meant to be a getaway for the sake of getting away. So on that level the whole trip worked, despite the persistent  rain and the mild oddities of our accommodation like paper thin walls, crappy coffee and the fact that the Gherkin insisted on calling it "bo-bo bari" as in "the dog's house".

On day one after arriving, we went to a nice park nearby, walked around, clicked a few pictures and generally relaxed. The next day we headed to Colonial Williamsburg. We never buy the tickets as it is way too pricey and prefer walking the grounds instead. This time around, the farm animals, especially the ewes and the lambs were a big hit with the Gherkin. Unfortunately it started raining in the middle of our walk down the colonial main street so we beat a quick retreat to our car.  The Gherkin, tired from walking around went off to sleep in her car seat, while we drove around nearby Jamestown for an hour. Looking out onto the marshes, far from all the dressed up impersonators and not so dressed up tourists, I had a feeling that time had passed us by and Pocahontas would come barreling out of the woods at any moment.  The feeling did not last for long. The Gherkin woke up, demanded to be fed and just like that it was bye-bye Pocahontas and Captain John Smith.

The rain kept us indoors that evening .On the next day, we stopped by Richmond, VA for lunch on our way home.  The plan was to get brunch at the Strawberry Street Cafe, something we used to do when our friend Pankaj lived in Richmond. Unfortunately, the food of our memories tasted way better than that on our plates.  They did not even have pancakes, the Boy was heartbroken. There was no doubt in our minds that here time had continued its relentless march.

Labels: Travel

Au contraire...I am quite the romantic at heart. I heart old school poems about lost love as well as new school poems about love that was never found. I heart the occasional Hugh Grant chick flick, though Casablanca is way overrated in my opinion. I find its black and white sentimentality rather tiresome.So in keeping with the cheesy theme of the season, here are ten of my favorite romantic movies. And before you point it out, yes, we know that the the first four happen to star Ralph Fiennes. In my defense, it was before he went and lopped of his lovely nose to play Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies.

There are some people who never let you down. Even if the wind is howling outside and the temperature shows no intentions of rising beyond the single digits. Even if the roads are a slushy mess, some people will show up because they said they would. 

the Girl gets to Play...but, wait, that was in the past (as in  2009 but it could have been 1999, for all we know). Now the Girl has a Gherkin who needs to be fed (fairly regularly throughout the day), given a bath (once a day, but it lasts a really long time and involves enough squeeze-y toys, washcloths, towels, creams and lotions that Cleopatra would do a double take) and then put to bed ( at least twice during a day). All this means that the Girl does not get to play anymore and if she does actually manage some playtime, it is scheduled so tightly that it starts feeling like work.

But that does not mean a Girl cannot have fun. In the past week, the Girl has managed to watch a movie every night, caught up on old TV shows and eaten her way through a tub of lemon ginger ice cream. And, also let's not forget the dinners of Paneer Maggi, that she has been rustling up for herself.

A few years back I ran over a squirrel on the way to work. And it was my birthday. I am yet to get over the the soft crunching noise of my wheels crushing the poor thing. I was miserable for weeks and at some point in the middle of moping I had the most illuminating thought - I could never be a mass murderer. If the death of a random squirrel upset me so much then think what.....so went the runaway train of my logic.

Fast forward to 2012. In our inept attempts to hide chocolate from the Gherkin we landed up forgetting a box in the closet under the staircase. Our lost chocolate was found by a rat and you know what they say about finders being keepers and all that.  When we finally found our chocolate or rather the leftovers, we cleaned up
(after the rat) and then argued. The Boy advocated a policy of peaceful coexistence (with said rat) while I insisted on squashing the living daylights out of the invading pest. Finally good sense prevailed and we laid out some rat traps. The Boy even baited the baits with some awesome Parrano cheese and we waited with bated breath.  Never mind that last bit, in reality we forgot about the bait till we heard a loud snap late one evening. The Boy went in and discovered a small, grey rat dead in the bait.  He was actually sort of cute looking, even though he ate all our chocolate. And now he was dead.

And then, after disposing off his remains in the trash the Boy declared that the rat looked like the one from the movie Ratatouille. It had the same blue grey eyes. Now, I was no ordinary rat killer, I was responsible for murdering Remy . I was miserable and just about to embark on a week of official moping when I realized that now there were the two of us. So what if we killed Remy, at least we are no danger to humanity at large and that my friends, is a wonderfully uplifting thought.

An early morning show of Mouse on the Move at the Imagination Stage, followed by a long drive through rural Montgomery County (the Gherkin went to sleep in the car and when the Gherkin sleeps, she sleeps...kapisch!) and then lunch at Mandalay in Silver Spring. And it's not over yet...there was another walk around downtown in the freezing cold with an excited Gherkin afterwards.

Through all this, the Gherkin behaved impeccably. It would have been great if she ate something other than white rice at the restaurant, but once you have locked horns with an eighteen month old you know better than to complain. You count your blessings and hope for another wonderful day.

Incidentally, the Gherkin is watching Curious George with her dad downstairs while I write this...that bit of good luck is continuing!

The semester is done with and my mother has gone to visit the younger sister. In between taking care of a snotty nosed, cantankerous Gherkin, I find myself obsessing about grades like I have never done before. And now that the year is drawing to an end, I might as well shift focus and ruminate on the year that went by.

The year began on a cold and dreary note with record amounts of snowfall (once again) and Pepco stood us up (once again) and people in this area forgot to drive and get off the roads on time (yes, once again!). As soon as we shoveled our way out of the snow and slush, the Gherkin and I set out to make new friends. We joined a mommy-baby yoga class and did we make friends or what? 2011 will be the year that we met all the other Silver Spring yoga moms and their babies and bonded over play dates. Hopefully in 2012 we will see more of that.

The summer was spent doing summer like things- a trip to North Carolina followed by a visit to Niagara Falls. At some point we decided to be responsible home owners and get our windows fixed and the front yard spruced up. We are yet to invest in a drill though.  A drill is what stands between us and that great deluge of tools that scream suburban homeowner. If we buy the drill today what is next... a lawnmower? a tile cutter? or may be even a chain saw? Luckily for us, we managed to get through another year without any of the above. (Pssst!..I have issues, in case you had not heard).  

This was an year of momentous growth - from sitting up, to crawling, to cruising and finally taking the first few unassisted steps. We sat back and watched awestruck as our little Gherkin accomplished all her milestones, while we coo-ed and encouraged from the stands. She is now discovering the amazing world of words (both spoken and written). Thanks to her, I can now recite the contents of these two books, backwards if need be.

I started grad school in September and my mother came to visit.  Sometime in between, the Gherkin, Grandma and I took a quick trip up to Boston to meet my uncle.  The rest of the months just dissolved in a haze of classes, mid terms and term projects.  And now I am writing about 2011 as the year that was. It was a good year, a healthy year and a happy one too.  As I contemplate the passage of time (of late, the years seem to pass by in a blink of an eye), my life and the people in my life...I feel extremely lucky and fervently hope that this streak of good luck continues into the new year.