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In my novel, right in the first chapter itself Mehnaz the protagonist claims that she feels making biriyani is like running an obstacle race. All these years, that’s what it felt like to me. Biriyani-making was simply like magic to me. Ammi would stand at the stove, stirring the huge pot and throw in onions and chicken or meat, and the masalas and then after some time I would see her draining water from semi cooked rice and then before I even knew it, biriyani was on the table, hot, steam billowing from it, each grain separate and without a profusion of masalas.
Sometimes, Ammi would make vegetable biriyani for me on Friday mornings for school and sometimes even when I was in college. It was always a pleasure to open my tiffin box and see biriyani, a little cold albeit, but still full of flavour and absolutely delicious.
So, tonight I embarked on this journey to make biriyani. I’ve finished making the yakhni, and i’ve measured the rice and kept it out, so I can cook it early in the morning and mix it with the yakhni. By now, I know how biriyani is made in theory at least and its high time indeed that I put it to practice. And yes, Saboor’s lunch box will have biriyani in it. I just hope its good and tastes half as good as my mother’s or MIL’s biriyani. I’ll feel so accomplished!:)
I’ve missed waiting for the weekend, ever since I finished college. What I mean is that after college got over, I was at home, all day, every day of the week and it didn’t make any difference to me, whether it was a weekday or weekend.
When Saboor’s school started, I realised that weekends were horrible! He would be at home all day, creating his usual racket and there was no time for anything else! Then my job came along, and I slowly began to savour weekends once again. But not for long. My job was such that I would work on weekends too, sometimes even on Sunday nights. This wasn’t the norm, and although it wasn’t expected from me, I would still do it, because at times the workload was too much. Moreover, weekends were not sancrosanct in my previous job and sometimes colleagues or others would call up on saturday nights expecting me to be free to take care of something.
Well, all that has changed now! I am now working in a place where no one is expected to work on a weekend and my week’s are so full, what with work, housework, saboor’s school all tumbling together. So the weekend is indeed something I can look forward to once more! And now I can actually say with a lot of feeling…’have a nice weekend everyone!!!!!!!’
Azhaan is learning to speak and now, its speeding up somewhat. I still feel he’s slower than Saboor who could string words together into sentences by this age. Anyway, here’s what he learnt today.
I was heating up his lunch when he came into the kitchen, holding a pencil in his hand. I told him that’s a pencil. He looked thoughtful and repeated after me: Penchin
After that, when I showed the paper to him, and said, ‘paper’, he looked back at me and said ‘Pennchinn’ 
Gosh..its so cute listening to kids learning to speak!
The best thing about Vellore….is the awesome sleep I get there! I don’t know why, but I always manage to take these amazing naps and get up feeling like i’ve been through a sauna! Usually if I nap during the day, I don’t get sleep easily at night, but that’s not what its like in Vellore for me. Guess it must be something on a subliminal level for me, or I don’t know what!
So, we reached Vellore on Saturday at around 2 in the afternoon. We went to Shakeel mam’s house straight for lunch and then after lunch, we debated what time to leave for the wedding. We thought we’ll leave at around 7 because the card did say dinner at 7.30, although the nikah in the masjid for the men was at 5.30pm. We were a bit confused but we went along with that plan. I took the opportunity to take a mind blowing nap after Azhaan slept. Let me tell you why it was mind blowing. I slept straight for more than two hours without Saboor interrupting me even once, with I’m hungry, I’m bored, or let’s play badminton…I slept without worrying about anything. I guess that must be it…that I can sleep there without any worries! Why that is…beats me!
That evening we went for the wedding and what do we see there? The bride had already departed! Apparently the wedding got over just five minutes before we reached there. It was very confusing because everyone was still there, except the bride and the bridegroom’s people. Apparently, the custom in Visharam is that the moment the nikah is over, the bride is sent off to her in-laws and then, the girl’s side host a dinner for their guests and the boy’s side take the bride to their house and host dinner or lunch or whatever, for their guests separately!
Anyway, we were a bit annoyed at having missed the actual nikah and the bride too! But we sat down to dinner (biryani again!) and then got back home and I slept like a log once more! Az also woke up only once! az loves Tamil Nadu I think. He has no qualms about the heat, he doesn’t mind the heat plastering his hair on his head with sweat and he just walks and runs around freely like this is where his real home is!:D Talk about being a true Tamilian or what!
This morning also we left leisurely. Reached Bangalore at 2 pm. Naturally no one felt like cooking at this late hour. And I asked Mansoor to stop at some restaurant for some take away. And what does he get us? Biryani from Hyderabad House! Biryani again!!!!! Sheesh!
All in all, this was a nice weekend. In fact, I would rate it among the best, for the amount of sleep I got!!! 
I’m off to Vellore for this weekend. We’re leaving tomorrow in the morning, and we’ll be back on Sunday afternoon, inshallah. There’s a wedding which we’re attending. Its also a long while since we stayed overnight in Vellore, although it will not be the same as we’re going to stay the night in Shakeel mam’s house.
A small update on my day today:
Mansoor wasn’t in town for most part of the day and I didn’t feel like cooking just for myself and Azhaan. So, I went off upstairs to MIL and had lunch there. In the evening, I remembered that I had to cook dinner. Mansoor was back and he was taking a nap, and today, Saboor , me and Anjum played badminton. Today my arms got stretched even more. Whats more, Parvez bhai looked interested and so we invited him to join. I was playing opposite him when the shuttlecock flew over my head. In a bid to hit it, I landed sorely on my butt! It felt so odd to fall down like that! I think once we grow up, we hardly ever fall. At least not as much as we used to fall in school. So, laughing I got up to my feet. In the evening, Mansoor suddenly reminded me that Shazu’s friend S’s brother’s wedding was today. Are we going? I said yes right away.Saved myself cooking dinner! 
Gosh I’m learning all these new tactics now that i’m on my own! S is a good friend of mine too so I was looking forward to seeing her too. The wedding was typical…the biryani was awesome…and we’re back home now. I’m off to sleep so I can get up early for tomorrow’s trip. Have a great weekend guys! C’yall later!!!
I played badminton with Saboor today after what seemed like eons. I love badminton although I never got to play it much when I was small too. It was only me and Jun, and both of us didn’t know how to play, but we managed, I remember. I’m thinking Saboor and I should play for half an hour at least, every day. It will be good for him and me also. I think its going to mean aching legs and hurting arms but lets hope this idea doesn’t die away like most good ideas. Now Saboor is after me to play chess with him ,while I just want to curl up with the Sophie Kinsella book(Shopaholic ties the knot) to spend the evening.
I play this game with Azhaan every day to see how much he knows about his family. I sit with him and tell him the names of people he knows and he tells me what he calls them. Here’s how our conversation goes:
Me: Azhaan, Andaleeb kaun hai?
Az: Mummy (mimmy, mammy, or ammi depending on his mood)
Me: Saboor
Az: Bua, Bwa
me: Ammi
Az: Nanji
me: Sidra
Az: Yaya(chaya also sometimes!)
me: Parvez
Az: Chacha
me: Anjum
Az: Chachi
me: Rayaan
Az: Baby, beebee, beebwee
me: Papaji
Az: Paeppaja or Peja
me: Junaid
Az: Mama
me: Shazu
Az: Phuppu
me: Dadu(what Sab calls my mil)
Az: Pa, or Apa(he calls her Apa because thats what my mom calls her…:D)
me: Abbu
Az: Jaea…from Jee, its evolved to Jaea, or sometimes Jaeee…I have no idea why he calls his father that…
me: Mansoor
Az: Chacha! (I keep telling him, your abbu’s name is Mansoor but he doesn’t understand!)
And lastly,
me: Azhaan
Az: Mai mai( and he taps his own chest!)
And this is something I had better record before he grows up and forgets it!!
I love this stage of kids growing up when they are learning to speak! he’s growing up so soon, mashallah and soon this will just be a memory.
I must say, I’ve always been thankful that Ammi is a great cook. When I was in school, our maid Rambha would bring hot lunch for me and drop it off at the school gate and I would take it back to my corner somewhere and eat it. I just took everything for granted. Even on days when I got shaami in my lunch box, I would nibble it, share with my friends and wish Ammi had put cheese in the middle like she sometime does.
In case you don’t know what shaami is, here’s a quick byte on it: Shaami is made by cooking boneless meat pieces(some use kheema) with channa dal(not kabuli channa), coriander, chopped onions, a little bit of ground coconut, some adrak-lehsun, garam masala powder, dry red chillies, salt and a little haldi with some water. This mixture is cooked until the water dries and then, when its still warm, its ground into a dough like texture in the mixie. (In my grandmother’s house, I remember seeing her grinding the shaami dough on a traditional ’sill-batta’. I used to watch her roll the heavy oblong stone across the mixture on the flat stone surface, bring it forward, then back and then the whole process repeated until the shaami mixture was ready. All this was eons ago of course. Now, no one uses the sill batta for anything anymore I think.) And then the dough is shaped into round balls, flattened into circles or oblong shapes and then deep fried. The result is crisp, golden brown and because of the perfect marriage of the meat with the chana dal, the shaami’s come out a little firm, a little crisp and very, very tasty.
So everyone does know what shaami is right? Yes, after school, I’ve always assumed that everyone makes shaami as beautifully as my mother and it was a surprise for me when I got married and saw that my MIL’s shaami was not the same. It wasn’t bad, but the dough was not firm enough and hence when it was fried, sometimes they would become too crisp and the taste was different.
Many times I’ve done some part of the shaami work for my MIL. I might have watched over the mixture as it dried on the stove, or I might have ground it for my MIL…or shaped it and fried it, but I had never done all the work for it by myself. Today I wanted to make it and Ammi had come home to drop me off, as I had stayed there last night. She suggested I make kofta but I wanted to make shaami.
Today also, I didn’t do the initial, most important part of putting the ingredients together. Ammi did that, and she put it on the stove to dry. She also painstakingly removed every little bit of fat from the meat, because unless we do that, the shaamis sputter a lot in the hot oil and tend to break.
After the mixture got dried, I wasn’t able to grind it when it was still warm because I had to put Az to sleep. I came back, and got to work, and the mixture was slightly cold. Anyway, I ground it, and realized that there were a lot of the chana dal bits that were not getting ground. Ammi always told me not to use too much water while grinding and although I followed her edict, somehow, the dough was not too firm.
At 2 pm, both kids were hungry and I went to the kitchen to fry the shaamis. I shaped four of them, and dropped two in quick succession in hot oil. Disaster. The shaamis first got stuck at the bottom of the kadai, then when I tried to pry them out, they disintegrated completely. There was nothing left to flip over and I had to drain the oil of all the small shaami bits in it.
SOS call to mom and she said that not everyone can get shaami right. ‘It takes practice’ was all she said.
‘Ok! But what do I do NOW?’ I asked.
Her tip was that I either mix egg white in it, or powdered ‘putane’(Fried gram dal). I did the latter and then took new balls of dough, and fried it. Luckily this time, nothing untoward happened. Believe me…it is one of the most distressing sights you can ever see… of shaami disintegrating in hot oil. Making the perfect shaami is like a test for making good pickle in some cultures I think. I probably failed miserably, but then, I’m not going to give up. Right now however, the shaami I made today will last one more day. The next time I make it, i’m going to be a little more careful. And I won’t take good shaami for granted ever again!!
So it was a regular week for me…nothing out of the ordinary happened, except that I have started my new job and I am really enjoying it! I went to office for the first two days and now I’m back to working from home.
At home, there are still a few things that need sorting out and I don’t know when we will get around to it. Now that life is somewhat settled, I think I can take up my writing again.
I started writing the new novel again, a couple of nights ago, and I am really enjoying it. The thing is…when I write, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I make absolute ’spur-of-the-moment’ decisions on making some character do something, and it surprises me too! So, I’m waiting myself to see what will happen to the protagonist!
I also updated my website and changed my home page. I don’t know how many of you have seen it now. I have to sit down and think of a way to make it more interesting. Maybe I’ll do it this weekend! Have a great weekend guys!
Today was my first day at work, and it went pretty well! I had been introduced to the team members when I went in last week. Aparna is no longer there, so it feels strange but I guess we should be able to manage. The work is great, my colleagues are nice people and I enjoy writing here. What more could I ask? And yes…an update on what I call the earl…:D
We all call him LB, short for Lord Bradford. I wouldn’t want to talk much about LB or my new job much, because, he reads my blogs sometimes! He read the ‘Moving on’ blog…where I was wondering what to call him…gosh…was I mortified or what! And he’s going to have a good laugh if and when he reads this blog!
Work is great! Hope it continues that way!
