Tina Basu's Blog, page 2

Very Fat Lady

Sometimes it’s so funny that people don’t realise the obvious. I was in Kolkata last year before my baby was born. I was 7 months pregnant when my uncle left us for the heavenly abode. It was a moment of shock for most of us since he was one of the nicest men around and loved by everyone – young or old. We held a prayer meet and funeral according to Hindu rites where many dropped by because my uncle was quite famous amongst his peers.
I was already tired and exhausted with his loss, the funeral and my health. I was sitting down quietly at a corner not wanting to talk to many people. At this time one of the distant family relative came and asked how I was, when I came from Bangalore, why my husband didn’t come and other rubbish.

She also said – you have become full ‘ginni’ (Bengali term for expert wife). You have become very fat, husband is showering you with love!

I could only give a blank dry smile. But inside I wanted to scream – ARE YOU BLIND???

Carrying a baby is no joke and people do put on weight. Why is it so difficult for people to see the obvious?

I laugh over it now, but that time I wanted to answer back! 

Image SourceVisit my Food Blog for some Healthy Recipes this entire month!***
This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 22 Letter V. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Ultimate Mallu Avatar

We were visiting Kerala once when my cousin sister was getting married there. A day after the wedding the newly-wed couple had thrown a houseboat party. I am always fascinated with the Malayalam food, their culture and their simplicity. The ladies wear these beautiful white and gold cotton sarees which are so typical of the place! I had bought one with pink embroidery. I wanted to dress up like a Malayali woman for the houseboat party.
Gold chain, gold bangles, long hair and white and gold saree – the perfect attire of a Malayali woman. It surprised quite a few people in the family but the funniest part was when the local people we met on the way to houseboat started speaking to me in Malayalam. May be they thought I am one of their own!
           


I didn’t complain though!


P.S. I was really thinking hard what can I write for today. Then Facebook showed this memory from 4 years back! It saved my day!
Visit my Food Blog for some Healthy Recipes this entire month!***This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 21 Letter U. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Tricking the Thief

I was at work when my husband whatsapped to inform some foreign currency was missing from the bed side table drawer! He was back from his work trip just a day back. When I was back home we searched the entire drawer and our cupboards but still some 250 USD were missing. But more than that what was worrying me was when I couldn’t find one of my gold bangle which was also there in that same drawer!
Theft at house! Who could it be?
Next day I rounded up my cook and questioned him. I told him I am going to question my maid too and then go to Police, they’ll then investigate. All I wanted was one sign of fright on their faces to know who the hell was so smart!The mention of police made my housemaid’s face all white. This was what I was waiting for. I went to the association office to get her details but unfortunately they were having her old details. You know, how carelessly these things work in India!
She thought she could outsmart me and got the bangle with her that evening when she came for work and kept it behind the bed. She picked it up and told me – “madam, it was lying behind the bed and you are worrying about it.”
She just never realized I was standing right behind her and watched her entire act!
I was furious that not only she stole in my house, she was trying to act super smart. Things like this doesn’t go down well with me. I still had to recover my dollars. I had already fired her from work that evening. But I was adamant o get the dollars back and report to the cops.
I followed her secretly to her house – which wasn’t a pleasant place at all. It was a dingy wet slum area. My husband tried to stop me but I was sure I wanted to know where she lived exactly so that I could report to the cops. I carried an umbrella with me. Yeah, that was for self-defense!
There was a heated conversation in front of her house where she claimed she didn’t have the money, then she didn’t have the keys to her cupboard etc etc. But I was so furious and so angry that she probably got scared. My poor husband who had followed me to see if I was safe was also scared I guess by that time.
While searching for the money – I found my iPod in her cupboard! It was just the fuel I needed to explode. My further searches revealed it was not just one day she had picked up randomly she has been doing that for months or may be years! My husband’s iPod nano was also there and so were my clothes, watches, coffee mugs, earrings and god knows what not!
I went to report it to the cops next day. Instead of filing an FIR they were surprised I had recovered all the stolen material from the house! They had even suggested me to submit al that I had recovered in the police station before they start questioning her.
That’s even more risky I guess!
She had sent people from her community to threaten me – but yeah neither me or my husband give a damn about such things.
Sometimes I feel I was lucky she had not sold off the bangle. It would have been a big loss. I still don’t know how and when she took my stuffs, maybe I had to be more careful and I try to be that now.

Have you ever faced such a situation? Recovering your stolen stuff or tricking the thief?

***This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 20 Letter T. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Surprising Statistics

This for once is not about any travel incident. I was writing the post yesterday and thinking why is that all funny things happen while I travel! Then I thought hard to remember things from school and college. Then I remembered about my statistics paper! God it is a story indeed.
I have always hated maths or anything remotely related to it. I deliberately had chosen to study of media and communication so that there was no mathematics, binary or whatever. I had done my graduation on Sociology but to my surprise we had a paper on statistics in my final year. Can you imagine my horror! Anyways I managed with that.
I had shifted to Bangalore doing my post grad in Media Studies and I was focusing on my studies because the good degree will help in a good job! In my third semester I got to know we were having a statistics paper! Ohh God, not again! Why was this damn statistics not leaving me! We were being taught by this strict old professor from the Department of Stats and he wasn’t pleasant to the eyes or ears!!
For some time I used to think what the hell am I going to do coeffiencts , theorems and chi-squares! (OMF I still remember these). We even had to learn and use software for solving things! Really statistics software!!
I tried really hard not to sleep in the class and get used to doing things. The old man was quite strict but little helpful. Before the final semester exams I was sure I didn’t want to fail. So I sought help. All the girls in my PG were engineers and my roommate was a finance girl. What better place could I get for help!
I borrowed a scientific calculator from one of the girls too. I was still not very confident on the day of the exam. I still remember doing back calculations on the calculator which had a function of formulae!!
When the results were out for the paper, it was hung up in our class notice board. I heard there are two sections in the result sheet. The last significant section was with the names who had to re-appear – they had a back in the paper – basically people who had flunked the test. I ws pretty sure I would be there. But somewhere in the back of my mind I thought maybe not. I had attempted some 88 mark questions. I didn’t even attempt which I couldn’t do. There’s no point in making a fool of oneself and proving to the professor what an idiot you are. It’s not a subjective paper at all!
Three of my friends along with me went to check the notice – one of them was in that famous list. But I didn’t see my name anywhere! This list was not according to the roll number somehow. The other friend slapped on my shoulder and said – “what the hell, you said you didn’t know anything about stats and you scored 85!!!!”
85!!! What?? WTH?? Where???
My name was up on the list at third I guess, where I hadn’t even checked!
I was super happy! But got a lot of frowns from my friends!!

I am still thankful to my friends in PG.
Any thing sounds alien to me now!
Image SourceHave you been scared to death about any subject as a student? 
Meanwhile checkout a super healthy soup in my cook blog
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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 19 Letter S. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Runaway Bride

Well this isn’t exactly a runaway bride story as you have seen in the movie. One of my very close friend A was getting engaged in Dec 2010. We have been friends for a few years after I met her in my PG accommodation. She’s from Kerala and that’s where she was having her engagement and of-course we were all invited.
A girl trip to Kerala was a very exciting idea. Too exciting and happening to miss out on it. So we booked our tickets and I had already applied for leaves at work. My other friend R called my twice to confirm if I was sure about this. And I said a big YES.
We reached my friend’s house in Kerala early in the morning on the day of the engagement. This was the first time I was witnessing a South Indian Engagement. It was a grand affair but got over pretty soon, very different from our weddings and customs.
Later in the evening we were helping my friend unpack the gifts and have a chat with her mom and relatives. My friend was obviously very happy that we made it there. She told her mom, she never expected me to be present.
“Why” aunty had asked.
“She is getting married in 5 days, and she’s here attending my engagement here!” said my friend in a flash.
“You are getting married in 5 days and you are here???”
Everyone in her family was surprised!
They couldn’t understand how come a bride was missing from her wedding scene 5 days before her marriage! We had a blast touring various places afterwards. The best part was everywhere I went my friends and her parents took extra care than I don’t fall, trip, injure myself. Aunty was caring enough to tell me use a hat don’t get a tan!
For my wedding in Kolkata, everything was getting planned and done by my parents. And I thought its best not to take too much stress. The girl trip was very exciting to miss. I reached Kolkata three days before my wedding. Though my mom wasn’t very happy about the idea of me reaching so late, I conveniently told her it didn’t have much leave!

P.S. My parents or anyone in the family still don’t know about this trip before the wedding!
The two Brides to be
Few in the Girl Gang

Queen

I was quite young when we visited Darjeeling, the famous hill station in the north of West Bengal. I was with my parents and another family of friends. Back then it was quieter and cleaner in Darjeeling. I was not more than 8 or 10 year old. Yeah I was a kid.
When you visit this hill station a horse ride around the hill is a ritual – like every person has to do it. I was a kid and super excited to see the horses. Well they stink quite a lot.
My parents were enjoying a good sip of the Darjeeling tea at a café in the central area when I went on my first long horse ride. These horses are I guess trained to walk on that 2 inches space that you have between the road and the slope downside. You will be feeling as if they are going to jump down and push you towards your unplanned suicide.
There was this young boy, not more than 17-18 who was the owner of the horse and was walking along the horse. I am not sure owner or care taker or what, but he was now responsible of my wellbeing till I was back at the center.
That guy kept speaking non-stop in Hindi (I wasn’t too fluent in Hindi back then). About his family, his house, his horse and god knows what not. When he had asked me my name and where I was coming from I had told him without thinking anything. I don’t know why he wanted this horse ride walk not to end at all!
I on the other hand was worried on two things first the horse was may be half a centimeter away from the slope and this guy walking by the horse was getting on my nerves and I was not getting any good feeling. This is when he said – “bhag chalo mere saath… I will make you my queen” (Run away with me, I’ll make you my queen).
This was the moment of shock, surprise, and terror all at once. And I was a kid. The only thing ran in my mind was – I have no idea where I am, there’s no one around, and this isn’t something good. That sixth sense of a girl was inside me quite early I guess.
I thought, the best thing I could do that time was not respond to him at all. And guess what I did, I started singing. I sang our school assembly song loud and clear!! I had no idea what else I could do. He kept on saying weird things but my ears were not party to them at all.
All I wanted was to get back to the central area and away from this mad man.
And I did, in another 15 minutes I guess and simply ran towards my mother. But I don’t know why I never told this to my parents. In fact I have never told this to anyone! But this isn’t a happy memory for me somehow!

Have you ever faced such a situation when you are uncomfortable with someone’s presence or advances?
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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 17 Letter Q. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Pandal Hopping Mess

Durga Puja is the biggest celebration of the Bengali’s. More than being a festival it’s an emotion and part of our identity for Bengalis. It’s five days of fun, food, pandal hopping, meeting friends, attending cultural programs, new clothes and a lot of fun.
For those readers who are not aware about a ‘Pandal’ – it is the temporary outer structure where the idol is kept and worshiped. It is decorated and lit up in the most beautiful ways. Every locality of the city has their own Pujas and their own Pandals. These days they are crazy for themes.
When we were younger we were crazy about visiting pandals and almost made lists of how many we are going to visit. When you want to visit numerous pandals across the city you have to be geared with map and mark the routes. Since these pandals crop up on roads and streets many roads are blocked for those 5-6 days and traffic is diverted. In short – if you have not visited Kolkata during pujas then you will not understand it!
Now, you already know how prone I am to getting lost. You missed that part, did you? Worry not, read my lost stories.
This one time all of us cousins had planned to visit a few pujas late in the night. Durga Pujas are whole night affairs, in anyways. I was the youngest in the group of 12. That Time I myself was some 10-11 year old. We were led by my eldest cousin brother who was big enough that time. This particular pandal is very famous for their decorations every year and each day of the festival they usually have a footfall of more than a lakh people.
You don’t even need to walk because you’ll be invariably pushed by the crowd. We entered the pandal through the entry way and within minutes we had to walk out along with the crowd in the same flow through the exit. There were two exits one to your left and one to your right. Once you are out and in that flow of the crowd there’s no way you can go in the opposite direction. It’s like a human river.  
Me and three of my cousins came out through the left exit way and stood near one of the stalls waiting for the others to come out. Time flew, thousands of people passed by my other cousins were still not out. We got a little worried. Those were not the days of mobile phones. We realized they must have gone out of the other exit. I made one of my brothers climb up a wall of a nearby house to check if he can see the other group over the sea of crowds! We didn’t spot anyone familiar.
After almost 45 minutes we visited the inquiry box and made an announcement – “Amitava Bose, who has come from Behala, your young brothers and sisters are waiting for you at the inquiry box please contact immediately”. [It sounds hilarious now, but we had to do all this back then.]
I was the only one in the small group of four who stayed in Kolkata. The others stayed in different cities and were visiting Kolkata during the Puajs. Imagine my plight. Even after waiting for a long time we didn’t see or hear anything from the other group. We searched for our car at the parking, the cars were missing too. We thought they must have forgotten about us!
One of our house was nearby and we decided to walk. But waking up someone at 2:30 AM in the night and announcing we are lost wasn’t a great idea. We waited in the garage amidst mosquitoes and light flies hoping this other group will come there looking for us.
But then we had to ring the bell and wake my grand mom up who came down worried with the bell ringing at that deathly hour. Guess what few minutes after ringing the bell we heard the cars honking and the other group barging in!

How I wish we had mobile phones back then!
This is how crowded it gets
Image SourceMeanwhile check out a crunchy salad recipe in my Food Blog

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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 16 Letter P. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Out in the Space

Well no, I have not done a Space tour or visited the ISS. I am not a rollercoaster person at all. I always feel I will fall down and break a leg or smash my head. It’s not that I have a fear of heights but I have a fear of falling down specially from these roller coasters. I was in Disneyland in Paris sometime in 2005 or 2006 and if you have visited a Disneyland you will know it has these wonderful lands – Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and so on.
This Tomorrowland has all sorts of weird rollercoasters. I was being pretty happy with the castles, Tarzan’s tree house, trains and shows. Frankly, one day at the park is too less a time! A friend dragged me to this craziest ride called SPACE MOUNTAIN. I was not too keen on it. But \since everyone was rushing towards it I too joined the queue. You cannot see this ride from outside. All you can do is he people screaming their lungs out. This is a complete covered ride. As I got closer to the entry gates I could see the people of the last ride getting down. Few were puking, few were all red (from all that screaming I guess), few were crying and some looked disillusioned! I told my friend – you go ahead I am leaving the queue – there’s no way I’m doing this to myself willingly!
This is that dreadful ride! SourceHe still dragged me and made me sit in that god damn ride!
The ascend itself was at a steep angle and we were taken up to some 5th floor height I think. And after that all I remember is I thought my heart was already outside my body, I am neither hanging or sitting, I couldn’t shut my eyes any tighter and the guy beside me was laughing!!!!


He even told me “open your eyes and see the space”
Really
If I could I would have jumped and hung on to a rope or the scaffolding – practically anything and escape that ride.
I did open my eyes for a split second and I guess a meteor whizzed pass me. The commentary in French behind the seat wasn’t helping me either!
This torture (for me) lasted for how long – I have no idea. I even screamed – “I don’t want to die!”
By the time we were down and the ride stopped I was shaking. The attendant and my friend had to hold and support me to get out of that seat. I didn’t howl or swear at everyone around was the saving grace!
I have been to Disneyland Hong Kong after few years and STEERED CLEAR of everything that remotely even looked similar to that Space Mountain.

Did you have a similar experience at a rollercoaster in an amusement park? Believe me I am scared of the oscillating Pirate Ships too! 

Seriously I didn't even go back to look at my photos. They would have been worse than this!
Image Source
Meanwhile check out a gluten free breakfast recipe in my Food Blog

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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 15 Letter O. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

No Fish Fry

We Bengalis are very sentimental about our fish. We eat fish like every day and if given a choice then in every meal. We have like some cosmic connection with fish. Ask a Bengali to be without having fish for a week he might find it is absolutely okay to murder you!
Here in Bangalore there are apartment complexes where they don’t allow non vegetarians. Imagine a Bengali trying to get a house for rent over there. Back in 2011 when we were looking for a place for rent we skipped all the properties that were listed with – prefer vegetarians.
My in-laws were visiting us one time and we had gone to Coorg for a quick holiday. For us food is a big part of any holiday. We were staying at a resort which was supposedly a good one over there. During one of the dinners my father in-law wanted to order fish fry. The restaurant in the resort didn’t have any fish fry apparently. They served only seer fish (which is a sea fish, and we are river water fish eating people) and that too only for lunch!
This is something that’s almost unacceptable for a Bengali.
“You don’t even have a fish fry?” asked my father in-law.
“No sir, no fish fry”

What worthless restaurant you are, we all thought inside!
Source

Have you too faced such a situation where you are sentimental about a particular food?


Meanwhile check out my Food Blog

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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 14 Letter N. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!

Macau or somewhere else?

Looks like all sorts of funny incidents happened in my life while I am travelling. I was going through my own posts this month and I can see most of these are my travel stories! LOL.
We were visiting Macau and Hong Kong sometime in the year 2008. We had to take a ferry to reach Macau from Honk Kong. This is one of a kind ferry though! We were asked by the local guide at Hong Kong to get down at the last stop and a driver would be waiting at the terminal for us with our name.
It’s actually difficult to follow the English that a Chinese origin person speaks. But we did catch the word ‘last stop’.
The ferry was supposed to stop at two terminals. We got down at the second one. It was sometime around 7 or 8 in the evening local time. By that time we had got a message from the driver that he was waiting outside for us. We came out and started searching for the placard with our name. Didn’t see any familiar name. Those days there weren’t Matrix cards (at least we were not carrying any!) My phone was on international roaming. But in the roaming things were also funny that time. I was using a pre-paid connection that time. I could send and receive SMS and ONLY receive calls and couldn’t do outgoing call. Thank god we have better options these days with WIFI available everywhere.
We spent over an hour looking for the driver. If you have visited this Macau you’ll know it’s a city of Casinos and tourists. Just outside the terminalwas the runway of the only airport there. While waiting for the driver we watched planes taxing in the tiny airport.
We sought the help of the tourist police there. He called up the driver and some words with him.
What he told next caught us in surprise.
“Your driver is waiting for you in Macau”
We were a little dumbfounded – where the hell were we if the driver was in Macau!!!
“Is this not Macau?” asked my dad now sounding worried.
Mom was tensed so was I – where the hell did we come?
“This is Taipa!” said the police
Taipa, now where was that?
The police explained Taipa is another island in Macau about 20 minutes away from the terminal where we landed up. This is the place you get down if you are visiting MGM or Venetian. 

He asked us not to worry since he instructed the driver to pick us from our current position.
Thankfully, we didn’t land up in some weird place!

Have you ever been in such a situation? Reached somewhere else by mistake instead of your destination?


Meanwhile check out a quick salad  in my Food Blog

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This post is written for the A to Z Challenge 2016 for Day 13 Letter M. Visit A to Z, BlogChatter to read other beautiful bloggers!