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Friday 14 November 2014

What I Learnt in the Month Gone By


The answer to the burning question of what I like better- mountains or the sea.



Bhutan-Relaxing after a morning walk




Maldives-Sneaking out for a mid afternoon break

Mountains FYI. Hands down.


A young person's love life is everybody's business.
I got asked by a thirty something globetrotting professional woman whether I wasn't getting too old for marriage. And whether my parents were not introducing me to suitable bachelors.


It's probably not love if a muffin can help get over heartbreak.


I don't hate dogs. Not a lot.
I shocked myself by going 'Awwww what a cute doggie' at a random stray in Bhutan. Also, fun fact: there are no dogs in the Maldives. Not one. (Maybe not such a fun fact for dogs).


I enjoy teaching.
Or having a captive audience, at any rate.


Adam-teasing is a thing.
A shop girl would break into a Hindi film song every time a male colleague would visit. One of those times, the song was 'Husn hai suhana, paas mere aana' (yes that forgotten gem from Coolie No. 1).


Unnecessary beautification is not just something CWG obsessed Indian administrators do.

Ghastly ornamentation in Bhutan

Still better than this:

Ghastly ornamentation in Delhi

Young lovers the world over desecrate public property.

See, just the names change

Indians are world famous for circumventing queues and bending rules. And being unapologetic about it. Even in the emergency ward of a government hospital named after a former Indian Prime Minister.


All the hoopla about 'Ghar ka Khana' is justified.
You can have all the fish maru, grilled tuna with salsa, Kerala style fish curry, Bengali restaurant style fish curry in the world. But your mom's homemade curry that spills from one end of the plate to another is still the best.(Now if only the moong ki daal and the daily bhindi could be avoided).


I am more Bengali than I get credit for.
It's not just about the food. I have rarely heard a Bengali say, 'Valentine's day is an import from the decadent West'. It's more common to hear them say that we have Saraswati Puja for that anyway.


A Uniform Civil Code is not a necessary (and certainly not a sufficient) condition for women's empowerment. The senior management of the Central Bank in Islamic Maldives is all-women.


There's a pleasure in the world called Kit Kat ice cream.
There can be no reasonable justification for this being denied to an average person in post-reform India.

They are not paying me for this, I swear

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