O B A M A

Several months ago I watched a play on Broadway called Thurgood. The play was based upon the life of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. It was a piece of history that was written in 1967.

Another piece of history was written yesterday when Senator Barack Obama was elected to be the next President of the United States of America. This was an election that was not only closely watched across the globe but was also a personal victory (or loss) for every American, across all sections of society, age groups, genders and race. Never in my memory has an election been as personal and as emotional as the one that made history yesterday.

Thanks to the time difference, I was up at the crack of dawn so I wouldn’t miss a single minute of the results. Not only was I switching channels on my television, I had live MSNBC on my laptop as a constant. When it was announced that Obama had got the required number of electoral votes to be the next President elect, I had a lump in my throat that wouldn’t leave. During his speech I had tears streaming down my eyes. I would have given anything at that point to be at Grant Park in Chicago and kept thinking about how stupid I was to not have stayed in the US until after the elections. I was so close to witnessing history live but I guess in my heart of hearts I had always been afraid of an Obama loss.

I had always maintained that Obama would not win. As much as I wanted him to and as much as I believed in him, I didn’t think that America was ready for a ‘colored’ President. Although during the last weeks I was starting to get more and more hopeful, I was still not convinced by the polls and found out only a couple of days ago that my fears had a name – it was called ‘The Bradley effect’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_effect).

I have never been happier to be wrong. America was ready for change and the color of Obama’s skin was unimportant. Although he was the right choice regardless of anything else, in my mind there were three factors that helped him tremendously – George Bush, the economy and Sarah Palin.

A few days ago I was jokingly telling a friend that if McCain wins, I will probably give up my American citizenship. However, I hadn’t really thought that Obama’s victory would make me want to move back to the States!

For the past several months I’ve had an Obama magnet placed strategically at the edge of a family picture on my refrigerator to make it look like he belongs to my family! It’s been a topic of conversation, a source of amusement and has also visibly upset a close Republican friend who was visiting from Chicago. On a side note, I’m truly amazed that we’re still friends!!

It’s going to be tough. The economy is a mess. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every month. Foreclosures are a common occurrence. Liquidity is an issue. The entire world is affected by recessionary trends in the US. Expectations from the new President are very high and he’s going to be closely watched.

Barack Obama is no Messiah. He is a President (in a couple of months) with a vision and a plan. He knows that the road ahead is tough and the damage cannot be undone easily. I don’t care what anyone else says, I think Obama is The One, in my family picture and in million’s of hearts. Do I think that he can turn things around?

Yes he can!

How Random is That?

The first thing I did this morning was that I kicked myself. I was SO mad it wasn’t even funny. And for good reason. I had missed John Lennon’s birthday on October 9th. I had made a mental note for myself to go to Strawberry Fields at Central Park and spend a few hours celebrating with all the other Beatles fans. On the night of October 8th when I was returning from dinner with some friends, walking towards midtown from the upper west side, a man who was quite obviously high on alcohol, walking close by, just out of the blue said ‘don’t forget Lennon’s birthday celebration tomorrow at Strawberry Fields’ and I looked at him and said ‘yes I’m aware and I will be there’. How random was that? And if that wasn’t a reminder from God, then what the heck was it???

So now you have a sense as to why I was so mad at myself. Anyway, since I couldn’t go back in time, I figured that I would go to the park today and have a belated celebration of my own. Every weekend there’s a band that plays by Lennon’s memorial and a few times in the past I have stood beside them and sang myself hoarse. The last time was with my friends who were visiting from Chicago a couple of weeks ago and it was such a memorable time. In fact we all agreed that it was the most fun thing we had done in the 4 days that they were here. And believe me, there was severe competition since we had done so many fun things!

So at 5:00 pm today I made my way to the park, my vocal chords intact. It was so amazing. I guess a lot of people couldn’t show up on the 9th and were there today including some celebrities like Alec Baldwin and Emily Bergil. I made myself comfortable on the floor, next to one of the guitarists and sang every single song with them for about 3 hours. I didn’t just hum or sing quietly – it was as if I was the lead vocalist! I was so into the singing that I didn’t realize for quite a while that the woman sitting on the bench next to the band, just above where I was, wasn’t just any woman. It was Yoko Ono! How random is that? My favorite moment was when before leaving, Yoko tapped me on my shoulder and said ‘you sing very well’. Oh my God!!! I could have died and gone to Lennon Heaven right then!

Anyway, at the end of the night, I said my goodbyes to the band and thanked them for the many evenings I had enjoyed listening to (and singing with) them. Turns out that one of the band members is half Indian and his dad is from Bangalore. How random is that?

Also as a punishment for forgetting Lennon’s birthday, I’ve decided that I am going to have to come back for it next year. Heh.

Speaking of ‘random’, the Saturday before I was moving out of my apartment my doorbell rang at 11:30 pm. No one has EVER rung my doorbell at that hour without my knowing exactly who it would be. I was in my pajamas and I opened to door to see a pretty woman holding an alcoholic beverage.

Me: “Hello”
She: “Hello”
She: “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”
Me: “No, not really. I just got home a short while ago”
She: “Well, I’m at the party next door and I was very curious to meet you”
Me: (Thinking) “Why would she be curious to meet me?”
She: "I know you're wondering why"
Me: "As a matter of fact I was". Damn she was good!
She: “Actually, we share the same last name and first initial”
How random is that?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I ended up partying with them until 2 am, meeting my neighbor for the first time, two days before I was leaving the apartment.
How random is that?

I have many more random stories to share but it will have to be another time, another posting.

Cakeaholics Anonymous

Last week I had an experience that completely blew me away. Never in my life had I thought that I would see the day that the sight of cakes and pastries would nauseate me. And this wasn’t a single-day phenomena – it went on for the entire week. It was more than troubling – I was in near-panic mode.

Everyone that knows me reasonably well is aware of my fondness for things that contain sugar and more so if those ‘things’ include chocolate. But no … the smell of chocolate was enough to make me gag. I wanted to get as far away from the three layered Devils Food cake with chocolate ganache icing, chocolate pastries with raspberry cream filling, chocolate cupcakes iced with rich buttercream frosting (alright you can stop drooling now) as a turkey would from Thanksgiving.

You may, dear reader, ask as to what was the cause of this strange phenomenon. Or you may not ask. I am however, going to tell you anyway. I was in a Techniques of Baking class all day, all week and I have NEVER been exposed to SO MUCH butter, sugar, chocolate, icing, cakes etc. in my entire life. The smell of baked goods that would on a regular day make my knees weak had quite the opposite reaction (uh .. not meaning that they made my knees strong).

In spite of my loss of appetite for desserts, it was all in all a fantastic (but intense) class. I have to confess that I'm not used to menial labor in the kitchen. I am on the other hand, used to having a cook who follows instructions very well. In other words I’m lazy but I supervise well. This class was tough for me because I had to do everything myself. Everything that one needs to do to bake a cake well. And we were baking on an average 5-6 cakes per day. Baking the cakes was the easy part. It was the layering, preparing the different fillings and icings and finally decorating them that was painful. Painful but rewarding. The ‘painful’ part will of course go away once I’m back in Bangalore and my cook is trained. And all I will be left with is the ‘reward’.

Our class was made up of 14 women and 2 men and we had to work in groups of two. My partner was a woman from the Philippines who makes an annual trip to New York and enrolls herself in baking classes. She was a nice lady, very ‘propah’, at 9 am every morning she looked like she had just walked into class from a beauty salon – not a hair out of place, perfect make-up, designer clothes - quite the Philippino desperate housewife! I'd like to add here that she was a little bossy too in a quiet way but by day two she realized that she had met her match.

We had our very own younger ‘desi’ version of Mrs. Philippines who flew in non-stop from New Delhi the same morning, showered and showed up for class. Looking way fresher than me for sure! Now you have to keep in mind that I’m not used to waking up before 10 am. And here I was, had to be at the train station at an unearthly 8:30 am. I was so stressed that I lay awake all night, tossing and turning, looking at the time and tossing some more. So compared to Miss New Delhi, I was a holy mess!

My personal favorite was M – the class clown, always more interested in what other’s were doing, taking frequent breaks, great sense of humor, prettiest girl in class (I’m NOT sending her this blog – all she needs is a bigger head!), knew everyone by the end of day one, charmed the chef – wait a second – except for the ‘prettiest girl’ part, did I just describe myself? We were just like two peas in a pod and got along famously too!

And just for the record, I made a Pound Cake, Blueberry Crumb Cake, Devils Food Cake, Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Angel Food Cake, Coconut Raspberry Cake, several kinds of Pastries, a Swill Roll, Raspberry Tarts, four different varieties of Cupcakes, with/without filling, with/without icing etc. etc.

Each recipe is being sold for $10 (which is a bargain if you ask me, considering how much I paid for the class) – I’ve been out of a job for a while now so I’m sure you can understand my need to make some extra cash.

Please email me for details on where to send your cash/cheque/check/money order.

Summer of 2008

It’s been a while. Summer is on its way out. The lease on my apartment runs out this month. With each passing day, I get closer to checking off ‘Living in New York’ from my ‘List of things to do before I die’.

It’s been quite an incredible summer. I’ve had family and friends visiting me from all over – Hong Kong, Bangalore, Chennai, New Jersey, Chicago, Georgia, Cincinnati, Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia – gosh, I think I’ve met more family in the past two months than I have in the past 2 years!

I want to leave New York while I’m still on a high about this city. As memorable as my time has been, I know that I cannot possibly live here. The pressure of having to be in shape, dressing well, trying out new restaurants, the constant feeling of ‘wanting to be out and either making the most of a beautiful day’ or ‘going to a show’ or just doing ‘something’ is exhausting. I’m exhausted. I want to go back to Bangalore and do absolutely nothing for a few days.

You’d be exhausted too if your summer included eating out almost everyday (and gaining weight as a result), 2 Broadway shows, a symphony, a ballet performance, exploring different parts of Central Park including the much hyped carriage ride, spending a day at the humungous Metropolitan Museum, going back to the Museum of Modern Art (just because …), doing a 3 day bus tour of the city, a speedboat ride into the East River, still trying to go to the gym 3 times a week, entertaining relatives, getting portraits made, attending a wedding and several parties, visiting art galleries, going to the US Open, miles of walking everyday, etc.

However, nothing in the world is more exhausting than shopping. My sisters who were visiting from India had insisted that they were not interested in shopping while I went ‘yeah yeah’ in my mind. I was amazed at the number of purses, footwear, clothes and more purses, footwear and clothes that they ended up with. Why am I even surprised? I really am not. I’m just wondering how the heck I’m going to get all the stuff that I’ve bought in the past year home. And I’m still looking to buy more. I hate the materialistic side of me. But I figure, when am I going to be in a city again where the lowest end store is a Macy’s?

People ask me about my New York experience and I can without hesitation say that it’s been one of the best years of my life. So much has happened that it feels like several years were packed into just one. There were times when I would try to not make plans but plans would get made by a larger force! Unexpected calls from people I never imagined I would see here. When I left Bangalore I used to joke about not giving my number and address to anyone so I wouldn’t have houseguests. And for those of you who think that I constantly had guests in Bangalore, my 400 sq foot apartment out here has seen WAY more action. I’m dead sure that the 111-year-old building that I live in has never seen so many people come and go. There were days when there was no walking space in my apartment as every square foot of free space had an airbed with someone sleeping on it.

However, all good things must come to an end. I have 47 more days in the city and I plan to make the most of each of them. Day 46 is going to have me going back to the US Open to see the Men’s finals. As much as I was hoping for a Federer-Nadal match, I really am not complaining about having to watch Federer-Murray. How many of us have the opportunity? I feel so lucky and so blessed to have the life that I do. I love being ME so thank you God!

All lines are busy – please call later

I received a call this morning from an acquaintance who spent the first what-seemed-like- innumerable-minutes explaining to me how busy she is. She has a full time job and has to come home and cook and clean. And commuting to work is such a headache. The ramble went on and on with me not listening to a word past a point. In fact I was reading the paper when she called (yes I have time to read the newspaper – I am so un-busy!!) and I went back to it uninterested in her busy lifestyle and unable to focus on it.

Oh in case you’re reading and thinking, 'is he talking about me?' you can heave a sigh of relief because I’m not. My opening character of this piece clearly doesn’t have the time to read my postings, so I don’t send them to her. Heaven forbid I give her more to do. However, if the thought did come to your mind, the next time you’re trying to come up with an excuse, think of something a little more original.

It annoys me to no end when someone who hasn’t been in touch for a while, hasn’t returned your call(s) and/or email(s) decides to get in touch with the classic ‘I’ve been so busy’ excuse. Unless the excuse is followed up with some compelling reason that has caused him/her to be busier than the rest of the working population, I really don’t buy it. I would rather be told ‘sorry but calling you back wasn’t a priority’ or ‘I did see the caller id but I wasn’t in the mood to speak to you and then it slipped my mind’ or even ‘you are at the bottom of my list of people to call – that’s why it took so long’. I may get offended but I’m sure I’ll get a laugh out of it.

We’re all busy. I have a full life and I’m not talking about going to work, cooking and cleaning. Those are just things that I’m forced to do. It’s all the things that I want to do that me really busy. And considering that I just resigned from my job, starting next week I’m going to be even busier!

I’m so irritated with the ‘busy’ word that I’ve now started substituting it with ‘tied-up’. Which, depending upon how the conversation is going, can lead to some very interesting visions.
“Sorry I haven’t been able to speak to you in the past month but I’ve been tied up. In fact I just got free!”

New Yorkers pretend to be the busiest people in the world. It seems like everyone is running to get somewhere and they’re always running late. Most of the people I’ve met here are ‘extremely busy’ but upon probing, their lives seem no more hectic than mine (a lot less actually most of the time). As much as I’ve grown to love this city, I’m also convinced that the majority of the people here are completely self-obsessed and think it’s almost embarrassing to be in regular touch as their secret of not being busy will be revealed. When I first moved here and I’d meet someone new, I’d be like ‘lets meet up sometime’ and we’d exchange numbers or email addresses. Silly me, I’d even try calling or texting, not knowing that everyone’s too busy to call or text back. I was beginning to get a complex, but then I found out that this is how you’re supposed to act over here. Sadly I think New Yorkers are some of the loneliest people in the world.
On a happy note, I also came across people who have a mind of their own and don’t care about conforming. I can proudly call them my friends.

I’d love to end this piece by saying something preachy like ‘our family and friends are the most important things in our lives and we should never be too busy to be in touch with them’ or ‘we can always get another job but its hard to replace a good friend’ or ‘running after money could result in people running away from you’.

But I’m not gonna ….

Of Mice and Movies

Recently I came across a mouse in my apartment. Which I found out, is not an uncommon occurrence in New York apartments. I had suspected that these creatures did make an appearance but I had never actually seen one for myself. So when I got out of bed a few night’s ago to get a drink of water and turned on the kitchen light I saw IT. We completely took each other by surprise and scared the s*** out of each other. He began running for cover and I muffled up a scream and jumped around a little, not knowing what else to do. A few seconds later, I saw it disappear into a crevice and I made my way back into the bedroom without the drink of water. My heart was pounding and I got under the covers and quietly went back to sleep.

The next morning I called the building superintendent who sent the exterminator who set up traps and did whatever else he was supposed to do. Gave me all kinds of tips on how I could prevent mice from returning in the future. But I haven’t seen once since and I’m really not one for following instructions.

Anyway, the only reason I tell this story is so I could have a clever-ish title for this posting!

So now I’m going to move on to movies.

Is it just me or did Hollywood hit rock bottom with the quality of movies last year? I mean if you look at the Oscar nominations for the past year, you have ‘Michael Clayton’ a mediocre ‘thriller’ at best which you forget as soon as you leave the theatre. ‘No Country for Old Men’ a much hyped movie about a maniac who goes about killing everyone. ‘There will be Blood’ – highly pretentious with an eye on the Oscars (just like ‘Babel’ was a couple of years ago). ‘Juno’, a heartwarming movie about a pregnant sarcastic, cynical and funny teenager, which deserved to make the money that it did, but an Oscar nomination? And finally ‘Atonement’ which I guess had all the ingredients to please the critics so I’m going to let this one go.

I was having a discussion about the recent mediocrity in Hollywood with a friend of mine and we both were of the opinion that they should have just cancelled the Oscars. “Sorry, but this year there will be no Academy Awards because we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel and still not coming up with great films. See ya next year … hopefully!”

I watched the latest Indiana Jones a couple of weeks ago. This was one movie I was really looking forward to and was extremely disappointed that it had received such poor reviews. So even though my interest had dwindled considerably, I eventually decided to go watch it. Maybe it was my lack of expectations, but I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I thought it had all the ingredients (masala) I was looking for. It had the pace, the adventure, the humor and the whole look! Loved it! Of course no Oscar nominations for this one though!

Another movie that I really enjoyed in the recent past is called ‘The Visitor’. A small film with no big names performing in it. Highly recommended. Don’t miss it.

Sadly, these are the only two movies that I’ve actually been glad to have watched this year. Slim pickings my friends. Is Hollywood running out of ideas? I sincerely hope not because we so look forward to original films from LA. And if Hollywood is running out of ideas, where is Bollywood going lift its ideas from (sorry couldn’t resist that)?

And I cannot end this ‘movie write-up’ without talking about one of my most favorite films that I watched once again this week – ‘Fight Club’. Every time I watch it, I seem to get enthralled by it even more! Of course the credit for the movie has to go to the book written by Chuck Palahniuk. I remember our book club in Bangalore read the book and watched the movie and all the women cringed. The men, on the other hand, thought it was the greatest! I never thought I would use the word ‘brilliant’ to describe any performance by Brad Pitt. He should be kissing the director's feet that he got to do this movie, by far his best. And Edward Norton, as always is outstanding. This movie probably has the most amazing and memorable dialogues that I’ve come across. My favorite line in the movie - the things you own end up owning you - Tyler rocks! And the entire premise is SO original, and if you think about it, SO pertinent. This is one movie that you either GET and love or DON'T GET and hate. There is no middle ground. Okay, I’m going to stop gushing now…..I just want to say that I even bought the script for this movie (the things you can buy on the streets of New York City!)

I could go on and on about movies but I’m going to stop before I lose each and every one of you.
I’m stopping.
I’ve stopped.
THE END (credits rolling).

NYC Subway Spotting!

It was a couple of weeks before Christmas. I was in the subway headed towards downtown, meeting some friends at a bar. Santa got into the train and made his way to the empty seat right next to me. I looked at him and smiled.
“You’re the skinniest Santa I’ve ever seen”, I said.
“It’s almost 2008 dude,” he replied, “Santa has to be in shape”.
I couldn’t agree more.
“So, what would you like for Christmas?” asked Santa.
“World peace” I replied, completely dead pan and we both laughed out loud.
We arrived at the 14th Street station and Santa got up.
“Santa needs a lot more beers. Ho! Ho! Ho!” he announced and got off the subway.
It was around 10 pm and thankfully there were no kids around.

This was last week. A South East Asian couple was sitting directly in front of me. He had his hair down to his shoulders and she had it as short as a boy’s. He wore earrings in both ears, a bracelet, necklace and several rings. She wore no jewelry. Thankfully he wasn’t wearing make-up and neither was she. Every 30 seconds they kissed each other. They shared the same iPod. They were dressed almost exactly alike – black Tshirts with cut off sleeves and tight, tight jeans. When I got off the train it was time for the 30 second kiss.

African-American male. Probably in his 30s. Sleeveless Tshirt and shorts. Arms and legs completely covered with tattoos. Wearing at least 10 different kinds of beads around his neck and a few around his wrist. Not a care in the world.

Overweight couple. Daughter wearing pink. Definitely tourists!

Indian IT nerd – glasses, mustache, Lee jeans and clunky gym shoes. Probably new in the city. Hopefully 6 months here will make him more stylish. More likely to move to New Jersey.

Big homeless man sleeping. Long hair, long beard. Unkept, unclean, uncared. Noone around him because of the unpleasant odor.

The Jackson 5 impersonators. Father and four sons (supposedly) – big Afro hair, unbuttoned polyester shirts, songs from the 70s. Made quite an impression on the commuters and quite a packet I must say!

A group of office colleagues returning from a sporting event. Drunk, loud and obnoxious. They could very well have been my friends and I in any part of the world!

The three white bald guys - same height, same size, looked exactly alike – triplets or generic white men?

The Hispanic mother and daughter that kept laughing about something the entire time. They would say something in Spanish and burst out laughing. There were bouts of giggling followed by unashamed loud laughs. I had no clue what was so funny but it definitely made me smile.

Never a dull moment in the New York City subways. Just keep your eyes and ears open!