BloodHelpers.com

I recently came across this website called BloodHelpers Where you can register and people who need blood can contact you for blood donation.

I think this is a wonderful concept which can help the people looking for blood donors. It is a very troublesome process looking for donors of specific blood type in emergency situations. And having such a resource center is definitely a boon for the people in need.

I've registered there and I request all of you to go ahead and do the same.

A sweet surprise

On Saturday Feb 14, was the craziest day this year so far. It was a rush rush rush situation from morning till late night. The details will follow in a later post.

Betu had a school play scheduled at his school. Once I was done with getting Betu ready Hubby went to drop him at his school. The same day we had to travel to Kota to attend hubby's cousin's marriage. So once they left I got busy trying to take out the clothes that we needed to carry. It was 9 AM and the stomach was growling with hunger. Hubby was taking a bit longer to return and I thought maybe he is getting something packed from Betu's canteen as he had mentioned the previous night. I again drowned myself in the packing frenzy with the hope of some food on the way. Soon I heard the door open and without even turning back I asked him to quickly take out his clothes so that I can put them in the suitcase. And then I heard him say "Happy Valentines day!". I turned around with a blank confused look on my face and saw him walking towards me holding a lovely bunch of red roses. I have no words to describe what I felt at that moment. From surprised to happiness to feeling all mushy.

Aren't they so beautiful? :)

It reminded me of my first valentines day celebrations way back in year 2000. Something similar had happened that time too.

Hubby is not the kinds who believes in gifting or doing special for such occasions. And I love it when he gives such surprises when I'm least expecting it.

I love you so much jaanu.

Andh-vishwas or Superstitions or illogical customs

Lot of us laugh talking about the so called superstitions from the yesteryear's. But has anybody given it a thought that there could be some logical reason behind them? I have. And after pondering over them I've realised that its us who are to be blamed and not the people from the bygone era who made these superstitions. I actually won't even want to call them 'superstition'. For me they were just the means of getting the others do something correctly. Since we all know common sense is not so common, people needed someone to guide them on the road to the common sense.

At the same time I don't agree with all of them. But again that could be because I do not know the real reason behind them.

Lets take the statement which directed not to broom after dusk else you will have theft in the house. For me there is no andh-vishwas in this. The statement was very much valid for the era when this would have originated. Those days when the source of lighting in the house was just a oil lamp, if you have dropped something on the floor and broom away, you will end up throwing it out without even realising. And then you would think there was a theft. Makes sense?

Now lets talk about a custom which is followed blindly at many households. A woman who was menstruating was not supposed to enter the kitchen or do any housework. She was just supposed to stay put in her room. People go on and lambast at whosoever created this custom. But I think it should be the people who follow it should be lambasted at instead. It made sense to me for having such a custom in those days because there was a lack of good sanitary options for a woman. There was a hygiene issue. I don't think I need to explain the hygiene issues involved here as I think I can safely presume and expect that the people who would be reading this would know the details. But now when we have so much at our disposal and when hygiene is not an issue, we are still following these customs blindly.

I can go on and on about such statements and customs but as they say "Buddhiman ke liye ishara kaafi hai". :D

So tell me know. Who do you think is to blame? Where is the fault? Times are changing and so should we. The problem is with US who do not want to look beyond, Who do know try to evaluate or analyse, who do not look at a problem in light with the current situation.

In the end all I would like to say "Nakal ke liye bhi akal chahiye".

P.S. I had been thinking of doing a post on this since long but reading this post by Cuckoo gave me the final push to go ahead.

Moms

Earlier whenever someone would say that Moms have 4 eyes and 4 ears I wouldn't really understand the true meaning. But yes, I would be taken by surprise many a times when Ma would know what we have been up to without being there. I also sprouted extra pair of eyes and ears when I became a Mom myself and then I truly understood the meaning of the above saying.

This post by Noodlehead reminded me of such an incident that happened way back in 1992 or 1993 when we were staying in Kolkata (known as Calcutta in those days). It was a Sunday. Ma had gone to her bedroom to take her afternoon nap after we all were done with lunch.

Suddenly it struck me and my sister to give a surprise to Mom by doing all the dishes since the maid was on leave that day. So we quietly closed the kitchen door. And were doing the dishes with utter carefulness lest we make any noise. We were talking in the lowest possible whispering sounds. We were almost done with them and had started to really feel proud when we heard Ma's voice behind us "Tum dono kya kar rahe ho?" taking us by surprise. We froze at our places for few seconds and then started to laugh. Ma being Ma, gave us a good lecture as to we needn't be doing all this and that she can manage but we knew she was happy inside. We could just feel it. At the same time we were wondering how did she know we were up to something? And we asked her so. She simply said when there is pin drop silence in the house, it means there's something fishy and then she also joined us in the laughter :D

We had tried to help her one more time, when the washing machine conked off and Appa-Ma had gone out of the house, by washing the clothes. Instead we ended up splashing and playing with water more than we did the laundry :D They returned at the most inappropriate moment with the water flowing out of the washroom and me and my sister totally drenched from head to toe. We got a really good dose that time! Now I can say it was well deserved. :D

Now that I'm a Mom myself I know I would have reacted in exactly the same ways in both the incidents as Ma did. And it makes me wonder. Is this a "mom' thing or is it because I'm her daughter?

Heard in the silence of the night

- The ticking of the clock

- The snoring of the two men in my life

- The dripping noise of a leaking tap in our washroom

- The strong wind outside making a 'wooo' sound

- A weird tapping noise outside our bedroom window.

- Growling noise of my hungry stomach :P

Besides these audio fillers that I just wrote about, the silence of the night was something that I hadn't had a chance to feel and observe in a long long time. Thanks to my 'Kumbhakaran" style sleep :D. It was an eerie yet an amusing experience for me.

~~ Keep Smiling! ~~

Sent on my BlackBerry®.

I can't sleep...

Its 3 AM and I can't sleep. Why?

Because -
- Its raining heavily. You can hear and almost feel the big raindrops pattering on the ground outside.

- Clouds are thundering loudly interspersed with lightning. They almost light up our room real bright for a second every now and then.

- There is a car in the neighbourhood which has such a sensitive alarm that gets activated every time it thunders. The owner is also up I guess as someone switches it off everytime it gets triggered.

- Last but not the least, both the boys are snoring so loudly!!


~~ Keep Smiling! ~~
Sent on my BlackBerry®.

Separation anxiety

I'm sure we all have read and heard lot about 'separation anxiety'. But then whatever you would have read or heard would have been relating to the kids and the kids going through this pahse. But what I'm writing about here is not related to a kid but to US parents. Yes. We are going through a separation anxiety these days. And when I saw 'we', I mean me and hubby. Sounds confusing? Ok. Let me tell you in detail.

It's so that we have to attend a wedding of hubby's cousin at Kota. Betu's Dadi-Dadu and Chachu-Chachu along with their son Aryan will also be there. There is another wedding of hubby's another cousin to be held in Jaipur few days later. We shall be going there again 2 days after coming back to Delhi from Kota. So the thoughts are that Betu will go with his Dadi-Dadu and stay with them instead of coming back with us. It sounded like a good plan for him to spend some good time with Dadi-Dadu and also with Aryan. But me and hubby both are not sure if it will go fine as he has never stayed without us even for one night. So we both were totally confused.

So to clear this confusion, we thought it was best to talk to Anirudh about it and see what his views are. The first day I spoke with him, about 2 days ago, he was thrilled at the idea. He was also mighty excited about playing with Aryan.

But I clearly told him that Papa-Mumma wouldn't be there with him for 3 days and that he would need to sleep with Dadi-Dadu. I thought that might make him retract back but that wasn't to be. He was just so happy about going to Jaipur with his Dadi-Dadu and Aryan. So far so good.

But to just check if this was not a one day excitement, I talked to him again about it yesterday. And still he showed the same excitement and was determined to stick to this plan. I tried an emotional trick to see what his reaction would be. I asked him "Aapko Papa-Mumma ki yaad aayegi, fir kya karoge?". He didn't even have to think for a second and responded "Koi baat nahi. Aapki wahan photo hogi na. Main usko dekh lunga. Fir mujhe yaad nahi aayegi."

I really didn't know if I should be happy that he is being such a strong boy. Or should I be sad that he won't miss us? But after looking at his determination, his Mumma papa are definitely going through a separation anxiety phase. We are not sure if we will manage fine without him in the house. Yup. The situation is other way around here :D

Scared of aging?

Then just gorge on blueberries. Termed as 'anti-aging superstars' they are also low on calories. So a dual benefit :D So says this article.

So why empty your pockets on those exorbitantly priced anti-aging creams when you have the natural method right in front of you. How I wish we could get these blueberries in India too.

The article also talks about how the antioxidant benefits of fruits and veggie is destroyed if consumed along with milk. It is an interesting article. So go ahead and read on.

Mixed Vegetables Souffle

After Manasi asked to post some non-sweet stuff, I made this today and had it for dinner -

This is a mixed vegetables souffle which was polished off by hubby dear and moi in 15 mins flat! :D

After the success of this one I want to try many more. And with that my plans of loosing those extra kilos just flew out of the window :P

P.S. Recipe will follow soon.

This was my dinner yesterday - Palak Paneer with Makke ki roti!

Do I have to add that it was droolicious? :D

It was an impromptu menu. I had palak in my freezer. I asked hubby if he wants to have palak with corn or with paneer. He opted for paneer. I had corn in my freezer but not paneer. So hubby went to buy paneer from the local grocer and bought makke ka atta as well. And so I ended up making this yummy combination.

And eating makke ki roti garma garam with lots of ghee on it, even though lethal, was heaven!

Baking rendezevous

As you can see I'm going through the baking mania phase these days. I keep trying different recipes from either the internet or from my previously collected recipe library. There are days when its a flop show and there are days when they come out really wonderful. Leaving me wondering if I really baked that cake *wink* :D

So today I happened to see this apple raisin cake recipe and I decided that I had to make it today in any circumstances. The cake rose just right, it browned just right and it was spongy and well moist too. Just the PERFECT cake.

So without holding back any further, I present to you the pictures of the cake:

I poured a bit of honey on the slices and it tasted even more delicious.

Want the recipe? Here you go.

Happy baking!