Me? Cook?

This weekend, I had a friend over for an Indian dinner. I was really excited about it, as I had never cooked a complete Indian meal for anyone before. And now when I look back on it, its pretty shocking to me. I am Indian, my mom is supposed to teach me how to cook, a la aaloo gobi from Bend it like Beckham (I thank my lucky stars that she is not like that mom)! But here I was, on the phone with my mom "This recipe calls for cumin, cinnamon and cloves (or some such mix of spices) and you are asking me to put Garam Masala!!" and the reply was "Silly Garam Masala is a mix of those three!" Jeez, how am I supposed to know.
Anyway, I cooked and it was not too bad, infact I thoroughly enjoyed the cooking experience. And now I am hooked. I will be having some more friends over and I am looking forward to it. Who knew I had this "enjoys cooking" streak in me....

Indian Runner Fails Gender Test

This has been in the news for a few days now. Asian games are going on in Doha, Qatar. Indian runner Santhi Soundarajan won a silver medal in women's 800m event. She was stripped off her medal after she failed a "gender test".
I was not even aware that there was such a thing as a gender test in sports. I guess it makes sense considering that the events are broken down into women's and men's. The thing that bothers me most, is the insensitivity with which this was reported. Especially in a country like India, where questions like these can have a very negative effect on a person's life. Apparently

"Soundarajan appeared to have “abnormal chromosomes.” The official also said the test revealed more Y chromosomes than allowed."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16258993/

People are speculating if she had a sex-change procedure.

"Santhi, like many Indian track and field athletics, took up sport to find a secure job and escape grinding poverty.

One of five children of brick-kiln labourers in a rural village in southern Tamil Nadu state, she overcame malnutrition as a child to become a middle-distance runner.

Her family could not even afford a television and watched Santhi's Doha race at a neighbour's house."

To me that does not seem to be an environment where someone's focus was to get a gender-change procedure. She probably never went to a gynecologist or endocrinologist or even thought she had a problem.

Lakshadweep Islands

So here I was, sitting at my desk and dreaming of where I would want to go for a vacation if tickets to India were not so freakishly expensive in December. Nevertheless I decided to live vicariously thorough the all encompassing internet. Don't know why or how, but out of the blue I remembered these teeny islands off the western coast of India called Lakshadweep. So I trudge off to Wikipedia (ofcourse I don't "trudge" to wikipedia, but makes it sound more like an adventure!! Well.... this is as adventurous as I can be from the confines of this Herman Miller)
What do I find? Actually not much information, I mean after all this is one of the untouched places, like Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Unsullied beaches (unlike the rest of the coastal India), probably not teeming with tourists (no offense to Goa). Looks like most of the tourism is handled by the govt, which does not give me much confidence as to how easy it is to access the islands and how easy is it to go on vacation there. But the sheer gorgeousness of the place beckons me. Yeah one day.....

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I have been struggling for the past few months with writing. Even a blog title would not come to me. I guess it is cause of all other crap filling my head. Now that I have successfully been able to give my blog a name (I would give partial credit for this to Merhawi) lets hope rest will follow and flow!

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