The way we think

Last weekend, we had to meet up with a couple of old-time friends who were on a visit from Chennai. We decided to meet up for brunch at a friend's place. And I volunteered to cook, ...er..., prepare most of the food. No guesses. I picked up some raw food recipes from our very own traditional "Taste of Isha". I warned all of them that the food was going to be raw & natural. Healthy for sure. Tasty...depending on what their tastes were like. G warned me as the people for whom I was cooking were pretty conservative in their ways of eating, except one.
I could say with guarantee that not all of them liked the food they ate, though it tasted fine for my family(including my daughter who just loves the beetroot salad). It did not bother me much because I did not have any expectation. But I had zero guilt since what I made was 100% healthy.
Later, a friend was talking about eating chocolates & he went, "I can eat all this food(& chocs) only for 5 more years. After that, I will get something; say BP or Sugar or Cholesterol". I knew he wouldn't buy it, but still chipped in.
"If you probably included this kind of food, maybe you won't get all those".

Even before I became associated with Isha I should say G was making effort to eat consciously(& he would tell me too). Probably that was a reason, me & G could accept Isha's food almost immediately.

This incident made me think. Obviously people know that raw food is healthier. But they were not ready to accept it because they did not like the taste. Or maybe they just got so used to what they ate for so long.
They'd rather eat, what they ate so long, for the rest of their lives & take a handful of pills, rather than probably change a little & live healthy(most likely).
Most of them probably had 30 yrs or more to live(if all went well), but they'd rather not take their life in their hands.

Now, this was the first time they saw such food, so I should probably not expect too much from them. After all, rejecting to anything alien is human tendency.


This incident will in no way stop me from introducing healthy food to everyone I meet but if I start thinking deeply about our tendencies, I should say it is pretty alarming.

Of course, another friend came home later in the day & she simply loved all the salads.
So, in all, the day went well.

I plead guilty

Long long ago, so long ago, I saw a movie called Speed(maybe when I was in India). I liked the lead actors in the movie, no doubt. Though I was following Neo closely, I came across Miss Congeniality so much later, say a couple years ago. The person that I am has never believed in being a fan or the likes(except when I was at school-crazy age, you see).
I love Julia Roberts as an actor. I can watch any movie of hers. But Bullock, maan. She is awesome. Her comedy timing is simply impeccable. I found myself laughing like crazy yesterday when I brought a copy of Miss Congeniality 2. I know the movie did not do very well. Who cares? I've never. Last week, I found myself laughing forgetting even who was sitting next to me. That was while watching "The Proposal". Initially, I wanted to watch the movie when I read that part of the movie was shot in Alaska. But the movie is totally hilarious. Sandra Bullock fits the role to the '.'
In fact most actors do.
I might find myself crazy for having written this in a couple of years. I still do not believe in the theory of being a "fan", but if that's what you call it, so be it.

Thanks to G for having introduced me to English movies. I always thought watching English movies in India was geeky. And yeah, I thought he was geeky too. And now, me?
Actually, now some people consider me as "geeky"(for want of another word). Seriously, I haven't watched an Indian movie since Jodha Akbar(you know how it works- only the good ones) & haven't watched a Tamil movie since Ghajini. But I do borrow old Tamil movies from the library. So that doesn't count.

But seriously, I don't know if it is the age factor or my tolerance. Even when i was in India, I just could not sit in front of the TV(mostly due to lack of time, on other times due to lack of good stuff to watch) & ended up watching reruns of "The crocodile hunter".
I am not up-to-date with the English movies here, but try to watch good ones whenever we can. I would call the movies I watch as pure entertainment. Unfortunately, I wouldn't say so about most of the Indian movies being made.

Falling down & feeling happy

My dream come true. I've wanted to skate ever since I was 15. I should've tended to it long ago. Nevertheless, me & G signed up for adult skating classes & thoroughly enjoyed the process.

I wasn't even sure if I would be able to get up with the skates on. The instructors were pretty neat & there was someone to check on me every now & then. Otherwise, it was the usual exercise around the wall. I fell hard a couple of times(though I was taught how to fall gracefully, never seemed to use it when time came). It actually did not hurt as much as I thought. I had so many people ask me if I was doing ok(which made me think, "Doesn't everyone fall in the beginning?"). I fell. And I didn't care about it. I was skating. Fumbling, yes. But still skating. It meant everything. A childhood dream come true. We plan to continue the classes for a couple more weeks until I can actually skate. It might be too early to try the ice rinks in SF or San Jose for this winter, but we are a step closer to that than we were earlier.

Here is where we are taking classes.

Just read this in the news. So painful!

Can a mother do such a thing? Beats me!

My sympathies with the boy who survived.