So what do you do?

Since I started freelancing and Just Femme and all that I am very cautious of my answer. I prefer not bring up journalism, women's magazine or film making when I have more than 2 people of company because then there is a general uproar around. People say things like oh so you work for discovery? Or so you are the next Barkha Dutt or launch into this oh the media these days is so screwed up, did you see the coverage of such and such an incident spiel and go on to show off their expertise on how it should have been covered. The standard refrain is of course "I should be careful of what I say, you journlaists are dangerous. "

It is insanely boring I tell you. If I had a rupee for every time I heard that I wouldn't think twice about going to PVR thrice a month! So I sometimes end up telling strangers (whom I am sure I shall never meet again) that I am a housewife. Then they have nothing to say to me no opinions whatsoever. They won't even talk to me about saas-bahu serials or the maids. I am talking about the educated upwardly mobile junta not your regular I have to spend 3 hours going to Mysore sitting next to you so might as well make friends with you kind of people. Them I have no issues with I have told them about my profession and have had intelligent discussions both related and unrelated to my profession.

Now I have a very different problem. The last of my writing assignments is done with. I have no new assignments (my own doing I must confess). I was beginning to feel like I had nothing new to say! No films and of course Just Femme is waiting on the back burner (JF I am mighty upset about. It is my baby). I always thought that I was the kind of person who had things outside of my work to do. But then I liked them so much that it became my work (I didn't start as a journalist that came much much later) and so am stuck now! I am seriously sitting and waiting for inspiration to strike me. Sigh......

A Photo blog attempt

I am in awe of people who can take great pictures with or without fancy cameras and lenses. It has been on my agenda to learn photography by the book (learning on my own has only got me this far as you shall see :) But till the time I actually do it. I shall amuse myself and probably bore others with my amateur amateur photography.

These are some of the pictures I took on my recent trip to God's own country

My trip to Ennakkad is never complete without a trip to the canal. This is a piece of paradise I hold on to and hope it remains the same for years to come.



I love old houses. They are so beautiful. This one is not being used currently.

Of course Kerala trip means a lot of sadya! This time in addition to Avial and Theeyal there was Dreamland Pudding!

The Kid described it as the most beautiful man made structure he's seen in years. And I completely agree. It tasted as yummy as it looks.

And this is something that should make you wonder! This was served up at an ice cream parlour in Thrissur. All their ice creams are served like this only! Am I the only one to see some kinda Freudian thing here?


It tasted weird too! But stranger was the fact that all the guys working there spoke only Hindi, didn't understand Malayalam and played National Anthem to get us out of the place (at 8 pm mind you)

Now for the most wonderful part of the trip. Meeting N. After practically 3 months of waiting I get to see this little wonder :D So here's debuting N with permissions from Sav :)

:D

The grand "domestic goddess" experiment

This was a post meant for JF. But now with that on a break (sounds like a couple is on a break :) I putting it up here with suitable modifications of course.

A few years ago a friend of mine got married to this sweet girl and we met up a few weeks after their marriage. General conversation was happening, which was a little difficult considering the girl was full 8 years younger than me and came from a small town. No, she wasn't low on confidence or anything but we simply didn't have anything in common. So I adopted my usual tactics, turned the conversation towards movies and domestic matters. Movies are never a problem since we all have the pretty much the same grouses or happy moments with them. But the conversation on domestic issues was very hard for me. I am bad at it. I didn't want to bring up the MIL aspect considering the girl was married only a few weeks but more importantly because she had a darling for a MIL (yes that rare species isn't extinct just endangered :) So we talked about cooking and cleaning and maids. She said she didn't want to use a maid and did all the work herself since there were only two of them in a not so big house. She also said she didn't have any time left after the chores for anything else. Now this stumped me. Just how much work could be there? Anyways at that point of time I was too busy shuttling between Madurai and every where else so I forgot all about it.

A few months ago I was reminded of this conversation and I decided to do an experiment. For about 6 weeks I decided to do all the chores around the house by myself (excluding cleaning vessels and the mopping) So for 6 weeks I cleaned up every inch of the house every day. I folded clothes and put them in wardrobes. I cleaned the kitchen 3 times a day. I cooked 3 times a day. I dusted every inch of the house. I rearranged things in wardrobe and attics. I bought groceries. I basically did everything. All this work took me FIVE hours everyday. FIVE hours! And what did I feel at the end of it? Well nothing much really. Yes, the house sparkled 7 days a week instead of about 4. Yes, V had no work to do at all. I don't know how he felt about it I didn't ask. But he did notice all the scrubbing and cleaning and asked if I was alright (!) Yes, things went a lot smoother since I did all the work and didn't go after V to do it. (He's a very nice guy and helps me out all the time. But then he's a guy and he needs to be told some times that's all :) And after all this I was still left with about 5 hours of time...I guess this why women did a lot of sewing, embroidery and made HappaLa and pickles! Since my skills in these areas are worse than a 3-year-old's I had to think of other ways to keep myself occupied.

So what was the result of this grand experiment? I think it just proved that the phenomenon "Domestic Goddess" was created to keep a woman busy when she had nothing else to do and of course it works very much in a man's favour.

Needless to say the experiment was abandoned. Now I have to do a quick clean up when some guests announce they are coming. My fridge isn't well stocked (I don't think I can ever claim that it is, after I saw what Nigella Lawson stocks up!!!) We sometimes had to order in or have bread for breakfast. V, has to fold up his own clothes and make his own coffee and my maid has to ensure she doesn't miss too many corners while cleaning. But what the heck I have at least 8 hours to do things that I want to do and feel absolutely joyful at the end of the day.