Giving ones best - gets a pick of the best

Indian currency notes are the most dirtiest, manhandled, mishandled, licked, picked,folded, written upon ,and  lies idle, amongst the money paper across the world.

It was one of those bus rides for a meeting and back home.

i had taken a ticket from the conductor of a bus, paying the best of my paper money for the fare, the conductor gave me back my change and i noticed one 10 rupee note was torn , i politely asked the conductor for an exchange, for which he said that note is valid, i agreed it validity,but no one would accept that torn one from me, and i would have to hide it to move it away from me

He mumbled that folks think that fresh crisp notes are genuine, and with that he opened his money bag and pulled out a wad of 10 rupee notes and thrust it at me , take a pick of what u like,i picked one.

He sure must have been hurt bad, to do that.

Eating contest - a lesson for the present times

I have always prided myself on relishing a dish, than hastly pushing it down.

That policy does not serve well, when being at functions these days with grand foot ball like crowds, and  hurry burry situations.

Remembering  the college days and the you tube vedios,of eating contests, i thought i should practice the sessions, to keep up the timings of the feast rounds.

All that i got in the first of these hurried eats was  a bloated  burning tummy, and  a line, that the food was not good.

 My poor tummy , it was a lesson badly learnt that i decided to chew my food and take up the next morsel in my hand only when i had my counts to the second tens .

Now the food is more tasty, and if sit with the first round of eaters, i may get up with the next round of guests, raising many an eye brow.

I refuse to be a part of the eating contest,prize or no prizes.

The taste of ladies fingers with a mans touch

Ever since my school days when the refectory table was laid with the usual bread and rice ,  and the sticky ladies fingers i have always had an aversion  to that mathematical vegetable.

Well that was the way it was made to be taken , " u will do well in maths",
 no wonder i could never cross that 40 mark breather, to pass my additions and maths formulae.

Now things are different.

 This morning  i had been to the veggie market and got two pyramid levels of ladies fingers, the check up methods i have been taught.

 The veggies were cut up and prepared with all the garam masalas in an iron kettle  and  there i was flip flopping them with a wooden ladle, till they got to the shade they are supposed to be.

The dish goes well with plain rice( at least for me),we also had a sour dish curry for our lunch with rice.

Courting in courtalam

It was a confluence of yogins at a small village near tenkasi , adjustant to courtallam, in southern india.

We were spectators for the event, and the participants ranged from tiny tots to middle aged handsomes.

Following the event the time was spent for baths at waterfalls, screeching and squealing to the delight of water flowing over us, every moment was a pleasure.

we had a bath at five falls and another at a secluded place called  Paalaruvi, a few kilometers into the hilly Kerala border.

Drizzling weather, breezy winds, and chilly times were the adjectives to the moments of courting happiness there.

Returning home, we had a tyre puncture, which gave us added moments of a road side dinner in the dark.

A dozer at work

A large hydraulic bull - dozer was here this afternoon , at our village main road,with the quick road laying road rollers behind, and an army of workers.

All the encroachments were asked to be drawn back to the line of highway stone slabs.
It was a very hot day, and by mid afternoon the road laying workers were taking  rest under the shade of the trees in front of my home.

The shaded trees were left off and the machine went away, just taking away a few branches of the plants.

The road side trees were spared , even though they are encroachments, for the benefit of the weary travellers.

Locksmith-the key to security

Siting under the shade of a badam tree, is this elder gentleman who repairs any thing from torches and locks to umbrellas.

Me with my forgetfulness misplaced my home key, and there i was wanting to have an extra pair made with a duplicate.

He got to work and with a fresh key, the size of the original he went to work, getting the notches right and the levers in his mind, he dished out a pair, he came home and got the final touches done.

There we have the duplicate as good as the original.

U don't need to show it

Alfred Nobel made lots of money from dynamite and other patented things, but like all high folks , who have risen too high, he wanted to make a charity and encourage research and literature and peace, at least to cover his guilt.

Many a Nobel laureate has come and gone, but we have with us still Mr president who has been honoured.

Mr Nobel may have been silent and still, for his savings being presented to many a quiet or an intelligent person till now.

I wonder if the cement on the tomb is still in place or showing cracks to the misdemeanour that is being done to the prize.

One does not need to show the prize and the citation, but one needs to do it in actions.

Censused and categorised - daily wages worker

It was just like any other hot summer day, the census taker had come in, all huffing and puffing and fanning  away with her file, the summer heat.

The  usual questions were asked ,and her assistant who seemed like her school going daughter on vacation, was busy typing away on her lap top computer,  my replies.

Name, wife , kid and what are they doing?

u live in a tiled house?

u have a fridge?

u have a car, a two wheeler?

a computer, a washing machine, an air conditioner,

how much do u earn?

Till now the answers had been yes ,no, yes, no and now i said i make enough,depending on the day,and u can put me in a list which will not have me running around to get a result of this questionnaire, and i was categorised as a daily wages worker.

It seems only this category was the slot for my answers.

My family and i are part of the 7.21 crore of the Tamil Nadu population.

May we stay stagnant at that number.

Takes two to blend

The decision was to make podiyana chutney this morning, so off i was to the market to get the herb and some tomatoes, coconut for the dish .

Ingredients

podiyana,
 coconut
tomatoes
black gram
bengal gram,
jeera
coriander seeds
they are fried
salt and chillie powder to taste
blended and there u have it like in the  picture.

Goes great with dosais and buttered wheat bread.

A collage on the wall

Be it an election season or the local festival  time of the year,  our wall becomes a posters back ground , being attracted if there is a poster already.

We had our wall postered recently with advertisements for local news, thank god the cinema folks have not noticed our white washed walls yet.

Yesterday we had a summer shower and , we had taken this as an excuse to have the wall de- postered, it was fun at 10 in the night me and Uma peeling , and squealing who could rip off the most and neatest, of the soaked up paper.

There u see the finish.