16 December 2014

MIL-FIL Mehfil: An eye for an eye

Remember all those fun experiences when my in-laws were visiting us? And the recent funny realization of how wise my FIL is in not giving into my MIL’s demand for a new TV (and instead get her cataract removed? 🙂 )
Well, there was another mini-episode yesterday. I called up my FIL last morning regarding some paperwork related to his accident and surgery while in US. He seemed audibly upset over the phone. I asked him if he was distracted with something.
“I am not sure if it was such a great thing to get your masi’s (that is what I call my MIL) cataract removed”. he said.
“Why?”, I asked, worried that there might have been some post-op complications. Which would be terrible since her other eye is non-functional from a very early age.
“Well, because of that, I am getting yelled at the whole day”, he somberly replied. I had no idea why would somebody yell at him for getting the cataract removed.
This is what I learnt as I pressed him on. Evidently, my mother in law can see crystal clear – so to speak – that everything in the house is NOT being put back in their right places after he uses them. She can now clearly spot the cobwebs on the wall and the dust spots on the floor. All those days of making short shrift of house cleaning has come to a screeching halt for my FIL and the housemaid. Hence all the yelling…
Barely able to conceal my laughter and then wisening up, I enquired “At what age do you get cataract?”.
“Oh! Seventy or so”, he said.
“Twenty five more years…”, I mused to myself as I subtracted Sharmila’s age and put my phone down 🙂

Category: Family in India, Humor | 5 Comments on MIL-FIL Mehfil: An eye for an eye
14 December 2014

Who said Bengalis are afraid of the cold?

In a resounding thumbing of the nose to the proverbial Bengali fear of “Thanda legey jaabey”, nine of the Chalupa runners – including the high schooler Pooja – showed up for the below freezing point run this morning. Manas, who already had put in a 5K run before starting for another 5K with us was a visual proof of the frosty temperatures. When he started with us, all the small sweat beads at the edge of his hair on the head had frozen and in the glisten of the morning light, he looked like one of those Christmas lights you pay money to buy. (or as Bengalis might put it, “kadamphool” 🙂 ).

Anyways, it was a great run in the morning. Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures. While fiddling with my iPhone with my numb fingertips trying to set it up on the trash can, I accidentally set one of the filter modes on.

Ran into old running buddies and ultra runners – Lia and Samantha on the trail. Lia had to withdraw from a 100 mile run because of her back. So, it was good to see her on the running trail again. As I explained to her, there was something that made me withdraw from the 100 mile run too. It was the thought of having to run 100 miles 🙂

Finally, as always, the highlight was the coffee session (“adda”) at Starbucks. We discovered a budding poet in Samaresh today. And got a Sylheti 101 course from Arup, Sheuli and Malobika. The hapless students – Sharmila, Sanjib, Manas and myself were none for the worse at the end. And I also got my old Starbucks moniker “Hey You” back on my cup!!

And finally, also ran into Heidi – the manager of that Starbucks and another old running buddy!!!

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12 December 2014

How difficult can this be?

I was driving back home from Atlanta airport last evening. The office traffic had not picked up yet and so I was speeding thru. As I switched from I85N to GA400 N, I found myself behind this vehicle which had an ad painted all over its back proclaiming “AAA batteries delivered and installed”. (I could not take a picture since I was driving but I Googled at home and sure enough there was a picture of a similar vehicle available on the internet).

I was really confused. How fat and lazy have we become in this country that we need help to put in those small – less than one inch – batteries in our TV remotes and flash lights? We need service for that? And there are businesses surviving trying to offer that service? Evidently, they are making enough money to buy a truck!

A few minutes later, I passed the truck and was trying to see how the driver (presumably owner of the business; I did not think this could be that big of a business to support multiple employees) looked. And that is when I saw the large, iconic, immediately recognizable, red “AAA” (Automobile Association of America”) logo brightly painted on the door. Of course, this was a AAA truck trying to sell and deliver car batteries to roadside people stuck with dead batteries.

Why they would not put the “AAA” logo behind – or better still use the logo instead of writing out the letters “AAA” in the sentence starting “AAA batteries”, I do not know.

In any case, sanity returned. We are not that fat and lazy in this country, I concluded – as I put the car in cruise control mode and sipped my double caramel frappuccino loaded with whipped cream that I had picked up from the airport Starbucks 🙂

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7 December 2014

From the bartender’s corner – Palm Breeze

There is a story behind this drink. Remember the front desk lady, Margaret, in our Lexington office who I had walked up to sheepishly and requested that the reserved parking sign for the CEO be taken down? (http://www.rajibroy.com/?p=5826) Well, last week when I was in Lexington, she came up to me and gave me – what looked like a gift magazine with the picture of a model showing off nice clothes, watches etc. In my mind, I was going “I don’t think Sharmila needs any more ideas” 🙂

In any case, she flipped to a page that she had put a post-it note on as a marker and it had a couple of cocktail recipes. As I read that page, I realized that there is an organization called “The Bourbon Woman Organization” (www.bourbonwomen.org). They host an annual bourbon cocktail contest called “Not your Pink Drink” and there are two awards – one for the best original cocktail by a professional and one similarly for an amateur.

Last year (2013) Marla Zimmerman from Louisville, KY was the Amateur Winner for this drink. I promised Margaret that, for her thoughtfulness, I will make both those cocktails in the next couple of weeks.

Christened Palm Breeze, it has Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon, Peychaud’s bitters, Splenda, orange slice, grapefruit slice, lemon slice and club soda.

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Category: Cocktails | LEAVE A COMMENT