The Various Kinds of Sabbatical

A few days ago, I saw through Facebook that my batchmate from IIM-B (and very helpful author from HarperCollins) is planning a rather special sort of sabbatical. I was thoroughly, thoroughly impressed. Read about it here on the link that Karan shared.

I was very, very impressed. And then, naturally, proceeded to feel that I was wasting my time on my relatively tame sabbatical.

Thankfully, the feeling didn't last long. I then spoke to a friend and ex-colleague who is also a month into her own sabbatical - and she said gaily 'Oh when people ask me ''what are you doing on your sabbatical'', I tell them, ''I'm on a BREAK...I'm not Supposed to be doing ANYTHING!''.

I was very, very impressed. And then, naturally, proceeded to feel that I was overdoing it on my sabbatical, what with the zumba, guitar, writing of second book, toying of idea of creating outline for sequel to JMPE and so on.

Thankfully, the feeling didn't last long. After all, it is said 'To each his own'. So you can be doing great big things on your sabbatical, the medium-type things like me, or absolutely nothing - or be anywhere on the spectrum in between, actually. As long as you're enjoying yourself. And I know I'm enjoying myself, and that's enough for me.

Plus, I'm now telling stories on Saturdays to Class I kids at a school for the underprivileged here in Gurgaon - a lovely set up called the 'Happy School', run by a wonderful lady called Mrs. Kamal Capoor. I've done two classes now, and while I am not really sure how much difference I'm actually able to make to their spoken English with just one class a week, I certainly felt pretty good when one kid shouted at the end of my  class 'Ma'am agle Saturday phir aana okay?' and then, without pausing for an answer, whizzed out for the lunch of Kadi-chawal that Mrs. Capoor was serving outside.

Yep. That's enough for me.

P.S - I am supposed to be on radio tomorrow. 94.3 Radio One. Delhi crowd, you may tune in if you like about 9 a.m., perhaps as you drive to work. I've never done this kind of thing before, but it should be fun. Vijay is 'helping' with his nuggets of wisdom as always, such as 'Think of what Song you will request' and 'Don't worry too much about what to wear - it's Radio'. 

I Have This Sneaking Suspicion

...that I'm doing it again.

I'm packing in too many things into this sabbatical. Yesterday I sat down and listed all the things I've done that I'm really glad about - and the list ran into over 30 things already. In 3 months. Yes, they're a combination of big and small things - Big, like finishing the second book. Small, like hanging out one random Thursday afternoon with Peanut at the new mall Hangout, as a surprise. Big, like seeing my grandma several times a week. Small, like being there for Pickle and Papad when they come home from school. You get the picture.

But one of the things on my sabbatical was supposed to be TO RELAX. And not the hardcore focussed 30-minutes-each-day ''I will do yoga-breathing-meditation-and-read-uplifting-books'' thing. But the ''truly-lowering-expectations-from-life-others-and-self-and-just-be-ing'' variety of relaxation.

I've been so busy with everything in the last three months that it's gone by in a whirry blur ( or blurry whir, if you prefer...what a poem, hey?). I'm not saying that taking a break hasn't helped - it's helped immensely. At the very least, I'm in better physical shape than I've been in for about three years - that by itself means a lot.

It's just that the feeling of panic that I had when I saw that three months were already up wasn't a welcome one - it was like ''wait, wait, I've done so much, but there's Still so much to do...what about the reading I was to do? and the volunteer work? and the ...'' etc etc. That's ridiculous, right? I mean, here I am trying to get away from the whole 'superwoman' tag and relax. And now again, I'm trying to be superwoman-in-pajamas! No, no, NO. I refuse. From now on, it's total relaxation. Not taking on anything new for a while, and will figure out what to cut down in order to arrive at a less frenzied state of living.

So. RIGHT. That's my NEXT project!

*Do you have any suggestions on how we do this?*

Now here's another first - Y's Cake Recipe

Over the course of six years of blogging, I have posted only two recipes, to the best of my memory - Banoffee and Bread Pakoda - and they weren't really 'my' recipes - both these earlier posts were a month apart in 2007 - wonder what I was on back then. I don't know if you've figured it out, but my interests lie elsewhere, pretty far away from the culinary department.

And yet, sometimes, the urge overtakes me to make something nice for my kids - usually it's something sweet -so that they know when Mama goes into the kitchen, depriving them of her presence, it's going to be worth the wait. After the disaster with Besan ke Ladoos recently, I was quite discouraged and stayed away from the kitchen, only going in for certain occasions to make my special Halwa and Kheer, using the recipes taught to me by my mother-in-law.

But a few days back, when one of my best friends from college - who is here from America for a short holiday - was due for a visit, I felt I had to bake something for him. He was coming over to meet me and the kids on a Monday afternoon ( yay, sabbatical!) and I had made sure there was good food on the table - but there was no dessert, and this was bothering me.

I remembered back in college how once I had discovered some simple recipe for chocolate mousse - involving melted chocolate and rum - and had whipped up something as an experiment. Amit had come over and practically inhaled it. I had watched, fascinated and horrified, as he downed the entire thing - the whole half-kg mousse. The man had quite an appetite, back then, and I'm proud to report that he maintains the same even today - he's a pro Basketball player, and manages more things than even me, in terms of packing stuff into a day! Me raised to the power 20, to be very honest.

So anyway, I felt like baking a cake for him and his wife, and I figured the kids would enjoy it too. So I wandered into the kitchen and looked around. Eventually, I made a choco-banana-marble-type-eggless-cake ( yes, that's a trademarked Y name - pretty catchy, eh?).

Since a few people on Facebook asked for the recipe, here it is.

MAN, I'm domestic!

Y's Eggless One-Hit-Wonder Choco-Banana-Marble-Type-Cake 
( look, I'm still experimenting with the name, alright?)

What you need:

1. 2 cups of flour
2. 75 gm butter
3. 1/2 cup yoghurt
4. 2 cups milk
5. 1 cup sugar
6. 2 tbsp chocolate powder
7. 1 tsp baking powder
8. 2 bananas, mashed
9. 1 tsp vanilla essence ( this is totally optional)
10. A rather experimental spirit (this is totally mandatory)

It's rather simple, really:

1. You melt the butter in a large microwave safe dish, bung in the oil and the yoghurt, add the sugar and mashed banana and whip up well with a fork. I divided this into two roughly equal parts since I was experimenting for a different effect.
2. You mix up the baking powder in the flour. I divided this also into two parts - 2/3rds and 1/3rds, and mixed the chocolate powder with the smaller part.
3. You basically add the dry mixtures in '2' to the wet mixtures in '1' - folding it in, in the usual manner for cakes - although I find that even mixing it up randomly doesn't make too much of a difference for some reason, as long as you've got the consistency right. You therefore end up with two readied mixtures. This is the point that I add milk to them so that I can decide what amount looks right - you don't want it too thin, basically. I think I used about a cup of milk for each part.
4. This bit was interesting. I took a greased dish and first poured in half of the non-chocolatey mixture ( where the vanilla essence was added, though I don't think it was necessary). I then added half of the chocolate one and to my delight a lovely, albeit uneven pattern emerged. I finished up by adding the rest of  the white mixture, followed by the chocolate mixture. A sort of 'sad flowery pattern' (as Aneela put it rather unkindly on Facebook later) emerged at the top. I liked it.
5. I bunged it into the microwave oven and put it on 'Bake' mood - in 6.5 minutes, it was done.

The whole thing took me about 25 minutes to whip up - and it turned out heavenly! Amit and his lovely wife Sandy - who usually doesn't even touch sweets - loved it! Their beautiful little daughter wasn't interested, but my kids really wolfed it down - even Peanut, who's usually choosy about cakes that aren't fully chocolatey.

So really, it was no big deal to make and it turned out well. If you give it a shot, let me know how it went.

Oh GOD. Is this ME?

P.S - Hey, Svety - I found that it was on the Banoffee post that you first wrote your comment about how I should write a book - like, 5 years ago! How cool is THAT?

So Totally Worth It

The last few days of my sabbatical have seen a couple of very nice things that I've been able to accomplish.

I of course have an 'army' of maids which people make a lot of fun of. But with my three small children and then my father-in-law at home, it makes eminent sense for me, so I don't really bother - and laugh along to the barbs like 'why don't you get them uniforms' and stuff like that.

My cleaning maid has a problem - like many of this set of people do - of an alcoholic-no-good-abusive-husband - who just blows up her earnings treating his friends to Pepsi, Paan and the drink, apparently. A long time ago, she had asked me about opening a bank account because she said that was the only way she could save any money. I kept putting off this request - and was quite ashamed to note that years had passed since her initial request to me . I finally went to the bank last week, figured it out for her, opened a joint account - and somehow managed to get an approval for her documents - she just got her a chequebook and atm card, and I'm trying to teach her how to use it.

The other one, who takes care of the twins - has had the dream of studying - she had to drop out in Class 8 and leave her village to come with her family to Delhi. So now that the twins have started pre-school, I've managed to find the most lovely imaginable retired teacher who has delightedly taken her on - she goes two days a week to this lady, and in between, my father-in-law and I are supplementing her education so that she learns the basics of English and Math. I also told her that Peanut now has started reading pretty well so she can learn with her. She very sweetly replied ''Yes, Peanut has been teaching me, but sometimes she is too busy...''. I was tickled at the thought of my 5 year old 'teaching' and then being 'too busy' - but suggested a game format which would involve the very competitive and bossy little Peanut to impart more of her worldly wisdom.

The maids are very happy and I feel a great sense of relief.

In other updates, we had some bad news but are taking it in our stride - our landlord needs his place back - we just moved in January to this really beautiful apartment and now we have to move again! Most importantly, we need to find a place within the same complex. But strangely, it's not really bothering me. I have a feeling it will happen and we'll be just fine. The broker I spoke to today was quite impressed with my book, he saw the notice with the extract that I had put up on the notice boards, and said 'Aapne toh Vijay-Sir ke baare mein sab kuchh bata diya!'. Ha ha. I just hope this influences him to find us a great apartment. Fingers crossed!

Lastly, am terribly terribly excited that two of my old college buddies are coming over today - with their baby daughters, whom I have never met! Can't wait to see them :)

P.S- Umashankar, thanks for the kind words in the comment section, and to answer your question - reviews can be posted on your blog; and/or Flipkart or Goodreads! Thanks Many. Even if you can just do a rating on Flipkart/Goodreads/both would be great. 

E, A, D, G, B, E

...which of course, all guitar freaks will recognize as the open strings of the guitar.

I started my classes day before yesterday. The teacher seems really good, a nice, soft-spoken and very professional young man, with fingers that can coax the most amazing sounds from that instrument. I've been given a set of exercises for this week and I'm trying to do them as diligently as possible. Yesterday I managed about 30 minutes, and today I'm trying to push myself for more ( and therefore it would help if I wasn't pausing to blog, but my fingers hurt so I'm taking a break. Yes, the fingers are capable of typing, not playing right now, go away, will you?)

I was unable to play properly yesterday, everything was getting messed up because I'm so rusty. But miraculously today, I'm able to do the exercises much better - it's just a question of getting the little pink soft tips of these lazy fingers all hard and calloused again. The way it was about, what - 15 years ago?

I don't know. Am I an age-ist? I can't see myself taking guitar lessons in my forties. So I figured I might as well take them in my thirties and attempt to start playing again, and surpass the levels I had attained as a college kid - who used to walk around in baggy pants and an attitude at all the Delhi University fests. In college, I won quite a few prizes at the competitions -but for a combination of singing and playing always - I was never a great guitarist - just played about enough to belt out a decent song. But then of course, the guitar has been hovering in the background for me. I just didn't want it to be that way.

I don't think I'll ever be a great guitarist either - but I do want to be a good one. I just want to be able to pick it up and tinker with it and figure out a new song and sing - without my fingers aching. Without the frustration that comes from not being able to figure out a complex chord, and just giving up.

When I was 15, my parents bought me this small guitar which they had picked up from a Flea Market abroad. It was tinny, and it didn't sound very nice. But it was the first. And it was incredibly frustrating to try and play - the sounds just didn't come out right. And then one day, they did. And it was the most amazing feeling when things sounded like they were supposed to. I was delighted. So over the next few years, I played and got better - until I started work, got married and other things in life took over.

This last guitar that I've got , which I fondly call Bluey. Yes, it's a distinct shade of Blue - I bought it in Bombay a few years back. It's a really nice guitar- a Granada. And the really surprising thing is - I haven't changed the strings on this one, except for one that broke. This guitar is a resilient one - it still produces great sound, despite this lack of string-changing and the overall lack of attention.

Anyway - I just hope I'm able to keep it up. I'm self-taught and therefore my technique is non-existent. It's sort of starting over - hence the lessons from an expert. I did take lessons a few months ago too, but it was to no avail, considering that I never got around to putting in the practice time.

It's really a bit of a no-brainer - but like many things, it's easy to say and not so easy to do - with anything worthwhile ( learning the guitar? writing a book? juggling? seriously, I taught myself to juggle three balls as a bored 7 year old, from a Reader's Digest article on juggling. Could join a circus.) , there's a lot of frustration in the beginning. The trick is to start ...and then not stop. I've started. Now let me see if I can keep it up.

E, A, D, G, B, E...C major scale...Tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone...

Sabbatical Round Up

I'm now well into two months on the sabbatical, and quickly losing track! But the last month has been busy, with quite a few firsts:

* The book launch of my first book :-) - it was a really fun event, more than anything else. I'll always remember it. I better, given that we forgot the videographer. My husband's iPhone to the rescue again.

* The first big birthday bash that I've ever thrown for my three kids - that deserves another post altogether. It was close on the heels of the book launch and since I'd never done anything like this before, it gave me more tension than the launch did. But it turned out great, great fun and the kids had a great time, especially Peanut. She is now five and the twins are two. Sigh.

* More time spent with my grandmother, which is always nice. Her spirits are up, despite the cancer and the ninety years. Could learn a helluva lot about the right attitude from this wonderful lady.

* A very, very nice Rakhi indeed - with both of my siblings in town, for a change! It just so happened that my brother was in town for that week, and we had a very nice time together - the importance of the family is really being driven home to me now while I'm all older and wiser in my thirties.The highlight of the day was that Pickle and Papad were accosted by all their cousins who tried to tie rakhis on them, which they couldn't understand the purpose of and therefore staunchly resisted with all their might - and it was complete madness. My brother's daughter Nikki is  probably the cutest kid I've ever seen, and trust me, this is a lot coming from a mother with three of her own. I wish she didn't live in England. It's hard not being able to watch her grown up. Oh well. My kids are almost as cute and there are rather a lot of them, so it makes up for it.

* Accomplishing of weight loss goals ha ha ha:  I finally weighed myself, and it's ...ta da...fifty six kilos! Yayyyy! This is a loss of about six kgs in the last two months. The Zumba goes strong, although classes have not been as regular as I'd like them to be of late. The dieting is pretty much off. There's only so much of the GM wonder soup that you can take for a lifetime. In Zumba class, my teacher remarked how he was once 78 kgs and is now 68 kgs thanks to the regular exercise. He looked around the room, saying 'We all know how difficult it is, right?' and then his gaze rested on me and he said 'Except for those of us who'll never know what it's like to have a weight problem.' I took great pleasure in telling him I was 84 kgs when nearing full term with the twins. You don't care about this, do you? Double -Sigh.

* I'm almost done with the first draft of my second book :) . This may sound like a superhuman feat, but most of it was written last year and I'm just recrafting it. About four more chapters to go and then I start the second draft to get it into a shape where I'm not ashamed to send it to someone to read. My wonderful sister has been instrumental in shaping this book, being the only soul alive I trusted enough to send the raw material to.

* Things picking up pretty nicely with Just Married, Please Excuse in the meantime. I'm hoping that a bunch of you read and review it on your blogs and on Flipkart. Go on, every little bit helps.

* I'm enjoying the extra time with the kids, although as you may have guessed, with everything else that's going on, it's not really all that much extra time. However, I've been dropping the twins to playschool every day for the last month and they're finally settling in now, so fingers crossed. My children are all now school-going. Excuse me while I sigh for the last time in this post.

So that's about it, or at least all that I can remember. Some exciting activities coming up next week. Will keep you guys posted. In the meantime, don't forget about participating in this giveaway - two winners already going to receive their copies of the book, there's still a chance for you to win! 

Sabbatical Round up, Week 3

It’s actually Week 3/Week 4 now, but better late than never, I always say.

Actually, that’s not true. I hate being late. I absolutely abhor it. My husband’s casual attitude towards appointed times drives me nuts.  But that’s one of the themes for this month for me - the discovery that I have a little problem in my inability to RELAX.

I’m supposed to have taken this break to kind of , you know, take a break. Instead, the various other pending things in my life have just expanded to fill up every single available iota of time until as before, there is no time left.

It’s a good thing though – primarily because I’m able to spend more time with the family. I’ve got to see a lot more of my grandmother, who has been rather unwell of late.But at one point, I must slow down.

Meanwhile, in the last 10 days:

·         Action has been high on the book front, with my getting my author copies and various celebrations with Vijay and the rest of the family. Gearing up for launch, and it’s taking more of my time than I thought.

·         I’ve been thinking about and think I finally have a plot for Book 2 – now to just figure out how to get time to actually write it. It's going to take a large re-write.Will do it at some point, though.

·         The Zumba is on in full swing and the body is hurting, but I think it should get better from hereon. It is incredibly strenuous but good fun, for the most part. Zumba Teacher no. 2 proved to be a delight after Zumba Teacher no. 1. Must do a post on that soon.

·         Am evaluating guitar classes in July, but then again, given that that is the month the book is launching, I may end up just taking on more than I can chew. So am trying to resist.

·         I find myself pleasantly surprised that I have actually managed to make decent progress on Peanut’s holiday homework. However, all the Hindi homework was pending and I was nervous about this weekend – but it turns out the school came to its senses and decided to extend the holidays another week. Yay!

·         In the first week of July, the twins turn 2 and I am planning a little birthday bash for them and Peanut (who also has her birthday later in the month). This should be an interesting exercise in stress reduction. Not. As it is, I have been delayed in terms of booking the hall and lost one date (dammit!) to a neighbor. But tomorrow, aha!

·         Yesterday was a very interesting project – Vijay had some shopping to do in Ambience mall, and within a two hour period, we had managed to buy a music system, various kitchen and food items while we deposited the twins and Peanut in a play area, and then fed them a delightfully unhealthy ‘mall-lunch’ of noodles, rice and cold drinks. Obviously, in order to accomplish all this, we had to take along our help and split up between various floors of the mall at appropriate times. It was all accomplished with military precision thanks to my planning ( unlike Vijay who kept getting distracted and saying ‘Honey, look – the perfect study-table for Peanut!’ when I asked him to pick up a kitchen knife). Great fun and utterly exhausting. Am in no hurry to try it again.

·         The grandma is utterly delighted to have her copy of ‘Just Married, Please Excuse’. She posed with it very cutely, must upload those pictures soon. She’s the first person I’ve mentioned in the acknowledgment’s section – primarily it was because she once told me in an uncharacteristically austere manner that ‘To have a talent like writing and waste it is a Sin Against God’. I had mixed feelings when she put it back down and went back to reading Palace of Illusions. But then I couldn’t really blame her – she’s already read the draft of my book, and frankly, let’s face it – it’s Chitra Devakaruni Bannerjee’s masterpiece we’re talking about here. Still. I’m looking forward to her reading JMPE and laughing out loud all over again, now that it’s in it’s final and completely polished and finished state.

·         Vijay also keeps a copy by his bedside proudly and refers to me as ‘Author Madam’ and ‘Author Baby’ depending upon the mood he is in. He started reading it and a few pages down asked me in all innocence - referring to one of his dialogue's in the book -‘ Hey, so what’s wrong with Tamper Tentrums?’ It took him a while to realize what he was saying and then he tried to tell me that I 'have a bad typo' in my book.

Anyway, the launch event is in the third week of July sometime. Epicenter, Gurgaon. I do hope you will come?