Caught Candid with the Camera

and not by the Camera :P
Skeets holds a sort of a record for being the most silent person...in the house..among friends...in office and everywhere else (except on gtalk).
An insane number of thoughts do swim in the mind but are shared with a selected few.
It is her own quietness that often misleads Skeety to think she is wearing an invisible cloak while she is clicking around town and won't ever be seen.
Time and again she has been proved wrong. Here's how:
*Discovered lying flat on the floor in the corridor of the house experimenting with light, olives, thermocol...
*Spotted squatting near India gate while clicking these pretty things (pic below). The strangers who spotted Skeety giggled. Perhaps they thought she was either insane or plucking flowers or digging bugs from the mud, but their expressions went even funnier when they saw the Camera in Skeety's hands. *Who cares* The love for the Camera transcends all else...

Golgappas can make for Skeeter's breakfast, lunch, evening snack and even dinner. Nothing wrong about that. Till the day she was caught standing on a cane stool (so as to get the black granite shelf in the backdrop) tripod stationed ahead of her...clicking them before digging in.
Ma enters the kitchen and wide-mouthedly stares, laughs and goes off to tell others what she saw. Grrrrr. And Skeets thought the folks were watching TV and she's be done clicking before anyone comes in. *Invi cloak... where art thou?*
Then comes the compulsive obssession to click while the car moves or when it is stuck in jams. While Skeety was clicking the autorickshaw's number plate reading "DL" (the sign that makes Skeety feel happy on roads, the sign which makes her thankful to be living in her beloved city) she notices a man on a two-wheeler who gave Skeety a 'get-a-life dudette' look...
Skeety grinned at the man on the two-wheeler so that he gets to read her mind... THIS IS MY LIFE DUDE :D My Cam... :-) Kat le ab

The Punjabiness in Dilli

*The title of this post may or may not be directly or indirectly related to the text that follows
**Read at your own peril, don't crib if it doesn't make no sense to you
***A note of thanks and a pocketful of Macadamias to the Nuttiest Nut for triggering the thoughts that led to this post...May your hair shine and glow and become black again :P

We were celebrating the birthday of a gangster (no no don't take that otherwise, Skeety means to say one of the friendly gang members) and another gangster reads the menu and says very cutely 'Ye dimsum kya hota hai'.
THUD
Skeets wanted to hide under the table. No Skeets is not making fun here, rather, just thinking of the various Punjabis she knows and how they react to 'alien' food. This gangsta is known to make peculiar faces at the sight of alien - meaning Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese or Mexican menus. He needs Punjabi food for surival. Dal, Paneer and the likes work best.
Moving on to the Nuttiest Nut.
Staying in London for about three years now, while talking to Skeety on the phone the Nuttiest Nut refers to Mozzarella in Carrozza as 'wo jo cheese ki tikki si thi na'. Skeety fell off the stairs on hearing that. Grr...
Also remembering a handful of other people who brand sauces or dips as 'chutneys'.
*Where's the wall
*Here
*Bangs head!
*OUCH that hurts :(
Okay all the above were Dilliwalas and walis and Punjabis in particular.
The Punjabi league is like that.
They love their gobhi alu, rajma chawal, dal makhani and so on.
*Breaks the rhythm
Skeety is yet again wondering WHY is she writing about food HERE.
*Stares into the abyss
*Starts scribbling again
Skeets was putting a lot of thought into food per se and here's the outcome:
Vada pao and burgers are similar...
Rajma is eaten in many forms, they become baked beans on toast as they transcend boundaries...
Rice becomes Risotto in Italy and Biryani in Pakistan (ok for that matter India too)
Pasta, Maggi and Noodles are shadows of each other...They dance around and change forms...Add/Substract various spices and lo! You have a different dish each time.
Back to POP (point of post): It is amazing to note how baked beans on toast will leave a punjabi unsatisfied (almost as if he/she has not had a meal) while rajma chawal will act like ambrosia.
Same ingredients, same earth, different tastes and reactions.

T-ea and words bind the world...

Activity has seen a slump following the footsteps of recession...
Brush, bathe drink, eat, work, surf, eat, drink sleep and again...
This mantra is being chanted in the strictest meaning of the word 'rhythm' everyday...
The cycle was broken this morning as Skeets sat down to read blogs with sips from a cup of Elaichi T-ea held between her palms...
There had been a slump in blogsville as well or so Skeets thinks...
Today it was noticed that most blogs on the blogroll are brimming with activity again...
There are friends who like to share about daily happenings in their lives and those around, about life as they see it, about cribs, about happiness, about their travails...
The one thing that is common in all blogs is words...
It took Skeeter those words from ALL of YOUR blogs to write here...
Skeeter is happiest when she scribbles...
She is also a very happy girl when she sips T-ea...
If beverages could be called enticing, T-ea would top the list...
Delhi is burning, what with the mercury crossing the dreaded 40-degrees mark...
It also means even less of the solo sojourns on foot to the places in Delhi where Skeeter finds her peace...
Those walks around the Kuchas and Gallis of Chandni Chowk are missed...
Those conversations with random Delhiites selling street food on how they make the stuff they sell are being fondly remembered...
Skeeter will not let the heat tie her down...
She MUST start visiting her beloved places again..SOON!
Also, Skeeter would like to introduce you to 30on30.net, an initiative by a friend who is trying to make a difference to a few lives around us...Skeeter had been meaning to put this link up here since long...But then it is never too late...
cheers!

The mystery of Thums Up TASTE THE THUNDER!

Crazy nights!
Eh!
Forcing Skeets to post about food at Reeta's Ruminations instead of DFZ.
No probbies.
Both are cuties.
Skeets returned home from work.
HUNGRY.
THE dinner box which couldn't be had at work was opened @ home.
Gobhi (cauliflower) paranthas (Indian bread)...
No, actually Skeets had half of the two allotted to her :P
These, hogged, standing at midnight on the kitchen shelf.
Ok Skeets was not standing.
The plate was sitting on shelf.
Skeets was standing on the floor.
Accompanying the HALF gobhi parantha were the carrot pickle and 1 Bikaneri papad or poppadum. Bikaner is a town in Rajasthan. Famous for its papads.
Thums Up was the only drink available at the ghostly hour (or so she thought).
No probbies.
Hunger ruled supreme.
We shall overcome.
When Skeets finsihed half of the half gobhi parantha she poured Thums Up in the mug (glass wasn't available either).
FROTH floated at the top of the Thums Up drink.
Wonder if they have a tie-up with Surf, Ariel washing powders?
No? Nirma perhaps?!
Scratches head.
Stops such thought from disturbing the tastebuds.
Finishes meal.
Not hungry now but sees PEPPY (round tomato flavoured chips/discs) and grabs the pack. The producers try to call peppy poppadums.
Skeets refuses to acknowledge that name.
Half a glass REAL mixed fruit juice diluted with water (Skeets loves her teeth...the less the sugar the better) follows.
This post was being written in between sips of juice and bites of Peppy.
Hunger made Skeets forget spellings.
Google rocks!
Search revealed something EXTRA!
The weird taste of Thums up (Skeets thought it was Thum"b"s Up hence googled) that must've been recollected by your taste buds when reading the name of the drink in this post (and Skeets is sure you must've said eeeeewwwwwww) does remind one a little about betel nut (supari). That describes the weird taste.!
Mystery solved.
Betel Nut + washing powder flavour= Thums Up!
Hence, the tagline= Taste the thunderrrr!!!!
Skeets doesn't mind Thums Up once in a while. Smalloo's liking for Thums Up has made Skeets' taste buds accustomed to the unusual taste. Here's the little something that wiki has to say about Thums Up:
Thums Up is a carbonated soft drink (cola) popular in India, where its bold, red thumbs up logo is common. It is similar in flavor to other colas but has a unique taste reminiscent of betel nut. Introduced in 1977 to offset the expulsion of The Coca-Cola Company and other foreign companies from India, Thums Up, Limca, and Campa Cola gained nationwide acceptance. The brand was bought out by Coca-Cola who later re-launched it to fight against Pepsi after
unsuccessful attempts at brand killing.

Ciao!
:D
Keep Smiling.
Skeets loves her blogs and shall try to be regular now on.
Tada!

Engaging walks...

Went for a walk to Connaught Place.
I am now at least half-a-kilo lighter after the long walk ;)
Clicked like there's no tomorrow.
Went on to Sitaram Bazaar in Old Delhi.
Glided past some beautiful old houses.
In them, lies the real heritage of Delhi.

They can give the so-called posh houses of South Delhi, a beauty complex.
Saw a netaji ki rally. Pooh Pooh at that!
Ate some real good street food. Kuremal's Kulfi and Baburam's golgappe for the records.
Long Lovely Day.
Ended it with a warm water foot-soak, followed by a generous splash of refreshing peppermint spray on the tootsies.
So, this is how I celebrated Pea-NUT's birthday.
Notes to the self: Pliss walk more often. Pliss wear sneakers daily. Pliss Pliss Pliss.

Some days are just purrfect!!!

And I enjoyed one yesterday :)
A shopping spree it was...My cupboard boasts of some nice summer clothes now and the darling digicam is back to life. Yes! I finally got a new battery charger.
And while I had just begun cursing the weather, the Rain Gods showered mercy and plenty of it :D The icing on the cake was the fact that we were sitting on the first floor of a restaurant with wide glass windows. Our table was laid next to the window and watching the rain drops slip through the windowpane was like visitng Paradise.

We signed off with a cup of Blackforest Gelato (which happened to be the flavour of the week) each :D

And yes all this happened on a Sunday, a day when I rarely get my day off from work!

Dilli ki Garmi

Dilli ki garmi (Yes, it is just as famous as the Sardi, but for all the wrong reasons) announces its arrival. The Mercury is hovering around 40 degrees celsius already. And i've been trying to find places to chill out. Here are the few I think I will b found this summer season: 1.Saltz @ GK-I M block - the place that inspired me to write this post and one more. 2.PVR Plaza - This is one place I absolutely love. The Metro to here, is the best. It drops me a minute's walk away from PVR Plaza. And for that reason as well as others, Plaza is my darling movie hall in Delhi. 3.Market Cafe @ Khan Mkt - I've grown to love this place since I visited it the first time. In toto three visits makes this place my most loved cafe in town. The only gud/bad point being the sooo many stairs that I hv to climb to reach there. Gud, coz I will do some exercise while climbing them; bad coz i am lazy enough to do so :D

Market Cafe

I resolute NOT to go out window-shopping anymore. Atleast not during summers. I lose my head if the heat touches me. And I want to be sane this summer unlike the MAD MAD Delhi traffic. I hv observed for myself that as the mercury rises the insanity of Delhi drivers grows manifold. No kidding there! The traffic starts getting heavier and noisier, the honking increases, the accidents too go up! Uffff!!!
Oh yeah! I start loving office more :D Coz of the full power back up! Ha ha! I frequent movie halls for the same reason. Grinnnnnn! I prefer not to shop for the same reason! :D