By Suze on Monday, December 10, 2007
There is a strange pleasure in the repetition of manual tasks.
In the slicing of an apple for instance.
The knife poised expectantly above the freshly washed skin. Leaping, almost, out of my hand in an eagerness to slice through the firm red fruit.
Thick creamy slices edged in deep maroon.
Or in the crispness of a freshly ironed collar.
I lose myself in the heaviness of the iron filled with linen water. Erasing wrinkles and crumpled lines on the cotton blend fabric with every movement.
A warm cloud of steam rises from the board mingled with the smell of cotton and detergent.
Posted in Marginalia | Tagged London |
By Suze on Monday, December 3, 2007
She waves her hand above the saucepan. The oil is hot enough. She throws in the mustard seeds that burst into life, crackling. Adds the chopped onions.
Saute the onions until translucent.. she reads her mother’s neat handwriting. Recipes written for onions that were bright violet in the cart that Muruga brought around every morning. Her mother would run down in a nightgown and haggle merrily with him before returning with the day’s vegetables. Small tomatoes, potatoes still covered in spots of mud. And a handful of bay leaves that he would throw in for free.
How would she be able to tell, here where onions were white, in clear plastic bags under the bright lights of the vegetable aisle at the Tesco?
She guesses the best she can while measuring out the spices. It takes several tries to get it right. Too much salt (add some potates to soak it up). Too little tamarind. Finally, she adds the sambhar podi from a tupperware container.
Neatly labelled in tamizh, packed and sent from home, brought over by a cousin returning from a vacation. It was saved for a special occasions – when she was cooking for friends, when they were having people over. If it was only for her, she’d just throw in the “Hot Chilli Powder” (suitable for Indian curries) that she buys at the store.
But today, although she’s dining alone she uses the sambhar podi. On this rainy Sunday afternoon, she’s trying to recreate, in Liverpool Street, a tiny slice of Abhiramapuram.
Posted in Epicurious | Tagged Epicurious, London |
By Suze on Sunday, October 28, 2007
This weekend as the clocks went back, I gained an hour. A precious gift on a chilly Sunday morning with two 1 AMs
Instead of going back the entire hour at one go, like the rest of England and Europe (Yes, as someone who had to fill countless forms, shell out a 100 quid and jump through hoops to get a visa to Europe despite living in London (or is it because of), I still think they’re two very seperate entities), I savoured and spent this hour throughout the day.
In the morning when I woke up, and wanted to snooze a li’l while longer – I gave myself twenty more minutes of Sunday morning under the covers – a very guilt free snooze unlike Monday or Tuesday morning snoozes where you know that the later you get up, the more emails you’ll have to deal with in one go.
In the afternoon when I met girlfriends for lunch, I gave myself an extra half hour of conversation, laughs and gossip before I had to leave.
And this morning, when I ran into work suffering from Monday morning blues, I stopped at a Starbucks, bought myself a caramel coffee with cinnamon, and gave myself ten extra minutes to savour it before getting to the rest of the day.
Now, I’m tempted to go forward every Friday evening, and give myself an extra hour all weekend!
Posted in Marginalia | Tagged London |
By Suze on Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Over long travels far and wide, I have come to the great realization that I am a city person. I love the huge metropoli, with their sky-high real estate prices and crowded streets.
Ever so often… usually when I’m stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes on a Tuesday afternoon, I claim that I want to run away to a more pleasant environs. Where there are rolling meadows and clear air and clean water and… well… pretty much nothing else.
About 20 minutes into ‘sitting quietly and contemplating nature’ and I want to run to a coffee shop, take in a movie and shop at my neighbourhood grocery for everything from instant rava dosa mix to olives stuffed with pimientos.
As I said, I’m a city girl.
But on a recent excursion into more pristine environs, I had the luck to catch some of mother nature’s truly outstanding creations.
Picture taken by Appa during Whale watching trip in Junea, Alaska. May-Jun 2007
Posted in Wanderlust | Tagged Alaska, USA, Wanderlust, Whale watching |
By Suze on Friday, March 30, 2007
Isn’t it funny how an entire lifetime can be summed up in 7 cardboard boxes and a cup full of loose change?
Posted in Marginalia | Tagged Ahmedabad, Change, India, Marginalia |
