Diary of a Whacky Girl

Do you associate food with people and places? Not asking about eating in restaurants, but rather about food that’s served with love at home.  I’m an ardent lover of food, and appreciate deeply when someone cooks food for me. I have a notable few foods that always remind me of the place and the person who’d served it to me for the first time. Invariably, every time anyone talks about that food item, instantly that person and the memory springs up in my mind.  The first ever item on that list is Akki Roti. A Karnataka delicacy where they make rotis out of rice flour instead of wheat. Well, the first ever time I’d a bite of this was at my Mami’s (A) Amma’s house in Bangalore, probably when I was 10 or 12 years, maybe? We’d gone for a visit early noon, and in 10 minutes she cooks it up and serves it with some amazing home-made Nandini ghee. Gosh, the smell of the ghee, the crispness and the taste of the roti, even after all these years, still makes my mouth water. I still remember...

Incident no.:1  I think invariably each one of us would have atleast on distinct memory of something we did / something that happened to us in our childhood, which we wouldn’t have forgotten even till now. It might be of bravery, forgery, happiness or sadness or anything. I think this incident, that happened to Athi, would probably go down into his memory as one for his bravery and calm!  So, this is what happened. My amma and Athi were playing with the bedroom door lock. Well, you can never guess the kind of things that’d excite a 5-year-old. It can be very random. This was one such thing. Apparently, he had just found out that the room can be locked from the outside using a key and can still be opened easily through the knob on the inside. No points for guessing who was inside and who was outside. Of course, Athi was in, and amma was out. As the boy was trying to understand this wow of an invention, he gets carried away and pushes another lock in the room, which is strictly ...

I have always gone on trips with friends from school / articleship / Ctc, but never with people from work. It started quite on a whim between me and a couple of colleagues, and before we knew it we had a group of 14 people readily agree to join. And thus went the first office trip, to Varkala in 2023. Like every other gang, after a couple of months since that trip we’ve been going around in circles trying to plan something similar once again - in an attempt to make it a yearly ritual. But as it always happens, the trip kept eluding us - time, budget, choice of places - each one of us wanted to do a different destination. The conversations kept happening now and then, but nothing materialised for 1.5 years. Finally, by the end of February 2025, about 6 of us sat together and finalised the dates and destination for the trip - the Good Friday long weekend - Chikmagaluru. As we opened up the option to rest of folks at work, we arrived at a total of 9 confirmed interests (8 of us from Chenn...

On an otherwise dull Friday evening, this impromptu question by a friend got me thinking for a while. Can happiness be measured? My mind immediately, without a second thought, came back with a "YES" and started making quick notes on what all makes me happy? How much of something makes me happy? So here goes the list - 1 medium French Fries (Because its always food first :D) An evening spent in Beach. An hour long phone call with a dear friend after ages. An all-nighter at home with my Girls Gumbal (Remember the night before R's Wedding) Solving (read, trying to solve) the Crossword Puzzle in Vaaramalar (its a weekly supplement of a Tamil Daily) First sprouts of the seeds sown Late night movie watching at home, during weekends Meeting up someone I know all of a sudden in a random place. Gosh! Every time I met someone like this, I would be beaming the whole day for no reason. A run along the 200ft road stretch! One night's peaceful sleep Sunrise! Cresce...