How green are we?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can incorporate little changes into my lifestyle in order to make it more environment – friendly. So I’ve listed down a list of thing I do on a conscious basis to be friendly to the environment. These are very simple things that you could also do. More importantly, I’m also looking for ideas and suggestions on other simple little things I can do to be more clean and green.

Electricity

• We are lucky that the house has four balconies, and lots of glass doors and windows, so we get fresh air and lots of sunlight and don’t need to switch on a single light in the house till 6pm. Even after that, there are only two lights switched on in the house at any one point – one in the living room, and one in the room in which we are at that point.
• Till lunch time, we don’t use electricity at home for anything other than the geyser, and the fridge. The maid uses the rice cooker to cook rice only if we are in a hurry, or if she is using the pressure cooker to make dal. Other than the one hour of television I watch during lunch, and the laptop and internet I turn on late afternoon, I use no electricity till the evening.
• In my opinion, the most difficult change I have effected is in reducing the usage of the washing machine. I’m one of those who just cannot stand unwashed clothes, so I would run the washing machine almost every other day, even if it was only for one tee! Now I keep the laundry bag in the kitchen balcony so that I am not tempted to unload it into the washing machine every time I look at it. I've also developed a simple rule of thumb for doing the laundry – I put clothes in the washing machine when I’m about to run short of underwear!
• I’m seriously re-thinking the idea of buying a microwave. As of now, we heat food on the stove, and it is perfectly convenient. Since I’m no cook, the primary purpose of the microwave is to heat food, so I might as well forgo it since it is going to be additional electrical instrument in the house.
• Another thing I’ve recently started doing is to make sure none of the switches in the house are on, when the instrument is not in use. For example, we leave the TV turned on at the main, and switch it off at the remote. Or the mobile charger is plugged in and switched on, though the mobile is not connected to it. The modem is switched on, even though we aren't using our laptops. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I’m just making it a point to turn these switches off too, unless they are in use.

Waste

• I never, ever litter, ever. I always put it in a dustbin, and in the common scenario of not finding a dustbin close by, I actually put it in my bag and take it home! I also shamelessly nag and harass everyone around me into not littering the streets. Clearly, it’s only the first and most basic step towards better waste disposal facilities and waste management, but hey, it’s a start!
• I feel very guilty about using those black bags for the kitchen dustbin. However, if I don’t use it and throw kitchen waste directly in the dustbin, the bin, the kitchen and consequently the house will stink to the high heavens, over time. Alternative suggestions for disposal of kitchen waste are very welcome. I’m thinking of composting the kitchen waste, but I don’t know if I am actually capable of doing it – especially since we grow no plants and will have no use for the compost!

Others

•  For a long time now, I refuse plastic bags in shops, unless I am buying a lot of stuff and can’t carry it all in my hands. I’ve decided to be more proactive about that now, and take my own carry bag with me when I know I am going shopping. I did that the last time I went to Avenue Road to buy books, and I have to try and remember it the next time I am about to step out on a shopping expedition.
•  In the two weeks since I have moved to Bangalore, we used the air-con in Nike’s car only once, on a very hot afternoon. We have decided to cut down drastically on using the air-con in the car. It is difficult to avoid it if we are out on a very hot day, but since we mostly go out in the evenings, it’s not such a big deal. Of course, in the evenings, the noise from the traffic and the pollution are irritants that tempt me to roll up the window. Actually, this is much more difficult to do when we are going somewhere with other people. Everyone always insists on turning on the air-con, even if we are out in the evening or night. When I protest, they always claim that it’s too noisy or polluted so I just have to shut up and sit back. Sigh!
•  I’ve also decided to try my hands at gardening. I’m going to buy a couple of plants in terracotta pots, place them in the balcony where they can get lots of sunlight, and water them every day and watch them grow and marvel at my green fingers! Of course, in all likelihood, this will go the same way as the other two hobbies I took up recently – colouring and jigsaw puzzles – and die an early, unlamented death.

So I hope this post gave you some ideas on things you can do to be a greener household. And if you have tips or ideas that I can incorporate, shoot them away!

A journey that (mini) nightmares are made of

Well, now I’m back in Bangalore. I’ve been ‘back’ for about 10 days now. The initial idea was that I’d come down on the 28th to attend FB’s wedding, stay for a couple of days, and go back to Vizag. I was supposed to move to Bangalore ‘for good’ (which duration is about 1- 2 years in my mind) in early March.

However, Nike got quite sick of sleeping on the hard, cold floor in his friend’s place, and went about house hunting with much enthusiasm and extravagance (by which one means that he recklessly upped our budget till he found the house he wanted) that he found a place for us just one day before I was about to leave for Bangalore - and so I hurriedly packed some of my stuff in two large suitcases, imperiously ordered the long suffering parents to pack the rest of my stuff in large cardboard boxes and send them to Vizag - and proceeded to have a miserable journey to Bangalore.

Now I booked a second a/c ticket because I knew I would be traveling with a lot of luggage but as my luck would have it, I got the side lower berth. While the smaller of the 2 suitcases fit below the birth, it was impossible to fit in the larger suitcase. I asked the family sitting in the main coupe opposite me if I could put my suitcase between both their lower berths, to the corner, but they very rudely refused and shut the curtain in my face! And the corner space between the lower berths in all the other coupes were taken up with luggage.

So I had no choice but to keep my large suitcase on the side upper berth - the side upper berth would be occupied only at Vijayawada, from when I would have the pleasure of occupying the tiny little berth with the humongous suitcase till the next day. However, the suitcase was jutting out of the berth, so I had to keep an anxious eye all the time to make sure no one walked into it, and could not relax for a moment. Finally, one man walked into it, and hit his head against the jutting edge of the suitcase, and roundly blasted me for it.

I finally found the compartment attendant, literally begged him to put the large suitcase in the cupboard with the bedrolls, and lugged the damn thing from one end of the compartment to another and put it in. Satisfied with myself, I then had dinner and sat down to watch a movie on the laptop, only to realise that I’d forgotten the adapter, and the laptop shut off at a most interesting point during the movie. I didn’t yet give in to despair - I bravely decided to go to sleep.

Now I’m one of those people who really struggle to sleep in trains, even when comfortably ensconced in air-conditioned compartments, warmly covered in blankets and rugs, with a soft pillow under my head. So I tossed and turned for over two hours before I finally fell asleep. Only to be woken up in half an hour by an old man, requesting me to take the top berth, because his wife couldn’t climb up. I end up with a terrible cold every time I sleep on the top berth, on account of the a/c vent blasting across right into my face, so I asked the old man to request some one else - but he said he didn’t want to wake up the sleeping passengers (hello! What was I doing when you woke me up? Aerobics? )

I of course gave in, and went to the top berth and slept. The a/c was on full speed. I normally don’t use a rug on trains but it was cold enough to warrant in so I did. But even then I was shivering. I put part of the rug against the a/c went to reduce the cold blast of air, but only yogis and rishis can probably sleep with their hands up in the air like that. Finally, after shivering my skin off, I gave up, and got up and went and stood outside the door to the compartment, and paced around for well over an hour. The lady who took my berth thankfully got off at Chennai, which we reached at around 5am, after which I went back to my berth and got some shut-eye.

The next morning, as we neared Bangalore, the attendant refused to part with my luggage until I paid the exorbitant sum of Rs.300 as storage charges! Considering how little sleep I got in the night, I might as well have kept it on my berth itself! I finally got custody of my suitcase for Rs.150.

I got off at Cantonment station - and the platform is quite low, so you have to climb all 3 steps to get off the train. This was such a struggle with those huge suitcases, and the narrow, steep steps leading to the compartment - I tottered all over the place, trying to lug those suitcases from the train door to the platform, let the suitcases fall, and finally fell myself - while three fit young men lunged about and watched the spectacle. I’d just picked myself off the platform and dusted myself when Nike came rushing up to help!

And that, dear reader, is how I got to Bangalore!

Oh Philippa, where have you been?

Oh Philippa, where have you been all my life? How could I have not come across your delicious books for so many years? Well, now that you have been discovered, the loss will be shortly rectified.

I’ve always loved historical fiction, both Indian and non - Indian, and whether it is a well - researched piece of work (as in the case of William Dalrymple) or light fluffy reading (a la Georgette Heyer), if I come across any piece of historical fiction, you can bet I am going to read it. Last year, on a cruise on the honeymoon, I came across Philippa Gregory’s ‘The Other Queen’ (yes, yes, I read books on my honeymoon) and I was completely bowled over by how much fun the book was, and in my favourite genre too!

When I discovered that Philippa had written a number of books in the genre, and some of them were very popular, I was blown away. Here was a lady who had written numerous books, largely centered around the English royals, across the ages. Her books were extremely fun to read, you want to race through the pages, even though you know very well how it all ended. And so was born a worshipper! I have now made it my mission, my goal, to read all her books, in chronological order (though she is still working on the Plantagenets, so I will have to start from the Tudor dynasty).

I started off with ‘The Constant Princess’ , which traces the life of Katherine of Aragon, from her childhood, till the early years of her marriage with Henry VIII. If you are really interested in the plot, do take a look at the Wikipedia page on Katherine of Aragon. Philippa takes quite a few liberties in the book - she shows that Katherine and Arthur have indeed consummated their marriage, in fact are deeply in love, and Katherine later lies about the consummation of the marriage because she believes it is her destiny to be the Queen of England - but its an interesting take on the inner workings of a beloved and revered queen, and of how she might have been as a young woman.

Of course, in terms of actual writing, there isn’t much to recommend in her books. The writing is awkward, and she has a tendency to repeat the same expression over and over again, (say at the beginning of a speech, mid way though the speech, and again at the end of the speech). I mean, seriously, Philippa, it isn’t children you are writing for, this isn’t literature, we get the point, so get a move on woman! The inner monologues of her heroines are a bore - just because the woman thinks the same thought everyday doesn’t me you have to write those thoughts in every chapter!

She also has this tendency to ramble for the first quarter of the book, and then suddenly jump to an epilogue, which features an important (and maybe concluding scene) of the heroine’s life. it’s a little annoying because here you are, following this woman’s (the heroine’s, not Philippa’s) trials and tribulations closely, and then, in one turn of the page, you jump ahead by 10, 15 years to some sort of a forced conclusion. It wouldn’t be so irritating if it was well done, but it isn’t a smooth transition at all, and it jars, so that when you close the book, you are a little put out, and feel rather cheated.

But for all the criticism about her writing, her books are such fun! Once you start, you’re on a roll, and you don’t want it to end. And for such a light read, her books are fairly well researched. Sure, she takes a number of liberties with historical facts, and assumptions we have no way of verifying (but dude, that’s the point of writing historical fiction - where you don’t know, you put your own spin on it), but in terms of the actual events that take place, and an idea of life in court, its well researched. Mind, the research wouldn’t stand up for a second if it was serious work, but her books are little more than chick - lit, so any research is good.

I think the best part is that they raise in the reader a great curiosity about the people and the time they have been reading about. I am fairly familiar with the Tudors, atleast from Henry VIII up to Elizabeth, though I’m sketchy once James I steps in, but even I was keen to know more about Katherine of Aragon after reading The Constant Princess and did quite a bit of reading up after that, and may even be reading upon some serious historical accounts of her time.

It also makes me wish we had more historical fiction/ mythology in the Indian context. The amount of material at our disposal is incredible, but modern works based on Indian history/ mythology are very limited in India. I didn’t think much of Ashok Banker’s Ramayana series - actually I disliked it intensely, and had a tough time reading it, which is a pity since my mother bought the entire series in hardback (some sort of collectors edition), since I had been so excited about it.

I remember reading somewhere that there is a lot more historical fiction available in regional literature but translation is of course a problem. It also makes me immensely grateful to Amar Chitra Katha for their books on various Indian mythological and historical figures. They has books on even fairly minor characters (such as Sishupala). I owe them my familiarity with and interest in Indian mythology.

Anyway, I’d love to hear recommendations from you on modern works based on Indian history or mythology. Meanwhile, I’m off to spend some time with ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.

2009: The Year that Was

Happy New Year! May 2010 be a year filled with good health, love, laughter and happiness for you.

While I am really looking forward to what this year brings for me, 2009 was an incredible year for me, and I am a little sad that it is over. Since I’ve not blogged at all in the past year (and to write more frequently was one of my resolutions!), I decided I’m going to do a brief recap of what happened through the year, so that I don’t forget what a truly momentous year this was for me.

January: The year started off with a bang, with a big family trip to Papikondalu which was…..wait for it…awesome. Soon after, my friends from Hyderabad came to Vizag for a couple of days, and much fun was had. I got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, caught on my gult movie watching, read a lot, ate a lot and in general remember how it is to live and not work.

February: February is always the most important month of the year for me. It was even more so this year because it was my 25th birthday, an important milestone, and I marked it by celebrating a birthday week, so that I did special for the whole week. We also drove down to Chennai for G3’s wedding. And most importantly, the parents fixed the wedding - though I wasn’t happy that they fixed for bang in the middle of a week.

March: March wasn’t a very good month for me. I had a massive workload, made worse by a member of my team suddenly quitting, so I was working late into the night, and on weekends. We had our annual appraisal, and while I received a good review, I didn’t get promoted. Now while I wasn’t expecting a promotion this year, I was surprised to find myself extremely hurt and disappointed and angry. To add salt to the wounds, we only got a nominal bonus and raise. The only silver lining was that we did a girl trip to Chikmagalur one weekend, and much laughter abounded.

April: The workload continued to pile up, and it was made worse by the fact that I was angry with the firm at that time, and felt very de-motivated. Things weren’t great on the personal front either - the wedding made me nervous and testy, and Nike was also peevish and short tempered as he worried about balancing between a job and his website. But I guess all that angst was good for creativity - I joined a creative writing class and wrote a couple of short stories, and Nike shot a mini-movie along with Andy.

May: I wrote the Civil Services Preliminary Exam for a lark, and later regretted it, for it was hot and uncomfortable and I was sure not to pass. Nagesh got married, and while I gained some friends at his wedding, I lost my mobile. Sw got engaged. The story writing and the movie making continued.

June: June was a quiet month when nothing much happened. Lalith visited us. We went for a day trip to Galibore fishing camp, and it was very very nice. I watched marathon sessions of HIMW and Desperate Housewives. I saw an incredible number of movies and a few plays. And I lived and thrived on Lonely Planet.

July: Shilpa finally left for the US, leaving me feeling rather bereft. Then I went on a 9 day trip to Eastern Europe with Samee. It was awesome, awesome awesomely awesome. My memory of any other event that may have happened in July is clouded by the awesomeness of this trip.

August: I got engaged. It was a lovely ceremony at home, attended only by close family and friends, followed by a fabulous lunch. We inaugurated my wedding shopping by going double over budget for the main wedding saree. We planned, booked and paid for our honeymoon. I lived in dreamland.

September: We hosted a rocking house party to celebrate the engagement. This was the first party Nike and I have hosted together, and with home cooked (by Nike) food to boot, so it made us feel all very couple-y, and it made me feel like some grand hostess. I also went on a lovely weekend trip to Hampi, which was a much needed break for me. I also took a big leap, and gave my notice at work - it was something I had been thinking of doing for a very long time, but it took me months to gather the courage and finally actually resign.

October: October was a busy month. I did a day trip to Mysore for Dasara, and had a great time. I went to Hyderabad for Bujji Anna’s engagement, and for some wedding shopping. My last day at work was October 15th. Sigh! L I left the very next day for Vizag, and spent Diwali at home, the first time in many years.

November: November was a whirlwind month. We finished the remaining wedding shopping, and I got fully involved in the wedding work. It was a heady and exciting time. Went to Hyderabad for Anna’s eventful wedding. And started off with our own wedding celebrations on 29th.

December: I got married! It was a whole week of celebrations, family, friends, sleeplessness, madness and being treated like a princess. I loved ever minute of it, even the tired, sleep deprived minutes. This was soon followed by a 2 week honeymoon on a Mediterranean cruise, and my first experience of ‘luxury travel’ - and I found out that it doesn’t come easily to me, I’m a budget traveler at heart - but it was of course a once in a lifetime experience. I returned from the honeymoon to a flurry of lunches and dinners so I can be introduced and I could introduce Nike, and then off we were to Goa, to ring in the New Year.

And that was 2009 for me. It has been a mad, busy, chaotic, fun filled, incredible, AWESOME year. I don’t think any other year in my life is going to be so eventful. I got married. MARRIED! And as if that isn’t enough, I quit my steady, satisfying job so I can figure out what I want to do and where I am headed. For someone like me, that step is enough to make me think of myself as a loose cannon! It was a big step, and a tough step for me to take, and as of now, I am extremely glad I took it.

I turned 25. I crossed an invisible threshold into adulthood. I got to travel extensively last year, both in India and abroad. Enough to keep the wanderlust in me satisfied for while, a long while. I saw a lot of movies. I caught some plays. I read a lot of books. I wrote some stories. I dreamed a lot. I did little. I made some new friends, but I also lost some old ones.

Its been a truly great year for me. Its been awesomely awesome. Thank you 2009!

Now how was 2009 for you?

Three weeks to go!

Just three more weeks to go for the wedding, and I am hyper – excited! It’s taken me a hell of a long time to get here though. The wedding date was fixed in mid- Feb, and till mid- May I was like ‘Ohmigod, I’m getting married, and this is the end of my awesomely awesome life as I know it, what have I gotten myself into, should I disappear somewhere unknown, I wish I was European so there was no pressure on me to get married’ types. In fact, apart from some close friends, I didn’t even tell most people that I was going to get married this year!

Then sometime around mid-May, I calmed down and started accepting that I would be getting married. I certainly didn’t look forward to it, but since it was inevitable, it was pointless feeling pained about it. In fact, even for the engagement, I had no involvement in any of the preparations, and just landed 2 days before the engagement. In fact, I had booked a flight to Vizag on 13th Aug morning, and duly missed my flight, and incurred a total cost of 10k to get home on 13th night, with the engagement ceremony scheduled for 15th morning!

But then the engagement changed things for me. Anyone who knows me should know that I’m a total attention seeker, and there is nothing like a wedding related ceremony to soak up the limelight! So I totally enjoyed all the attention, all the compliments, whether genuine or not, and thought ‘hell, if I am going to get pampered and complimented and gifted and showered so much attention, then bring the wedding on!!!’. And that, dear readers, is how I came to look forward to the wedding.

Two months after the engagement, in mid-October, I moved home to Vizag, and that’s when the excitement hit in. In the last three odd weeks I’ve been completely involved in wedding preparations, and it’s been hectic and it’s been loads of fun. Since I got home, I:
- finished buying the wedding sarees. My mother and sister of course made this job infinitely easier for me my shortlisting two sarees for each event, so all I had to do was get them draped while they voted for their choice.
- let my mother drag me around to get the blouses stitched. I usually have nothing to contribute when the tailor and my mom look to me for my inputs.
- checked all the invitation cards for defects and smeared haldi on their edges. A thankless job, I later learned, with my dad saying that the way I put the haldi, it resembled dung!
- scoured every stationery shop in the city, and bought up every glitter/sparkle/glossy pen in sight till we found a pen that wrote to my father’s satisfaction – this of course for the invitation card
- met the decorator twice, over two cities, showed him loads of pictures, and waved my hands vigorously in front of his face as if that would magically help him visualize what I wanted. I also spent a painstaking hour writing out specs in Telugu, only to discover he knew English!
- met the lights guy twice, at home and at the venue, and again did the thing with my hands, this time even using my fingers (to indicate sparkly lights) – the poor man finally took pity on me and offered to put up a full dress rehearsal one night before the wedding so I could check out the lights
- visited all the guest houses with dad, gave him my valuable opinions on each, and provided him moral support by sitting next to him as he sat with a notebook trying to decide which relatives should be allocated to which guest house
- accompanied my father, my brother and my fiancé individually on multiple rounds of shopping for their outfits. Apparently, while I am not good enough to select my own sarees, I’m the victim of choice when it comes to giving opinions on menswear

I’m beginning to feel quite proud of myself for having contributed so significantly (!) to the ongoing preparations. Alas, my contribution is sadly undervalued by the family, who are always questioning why I don’t seem to have gotten anything done during the day, why I seem to be asleep all the time and why I seem to be on the phone when I’m awake, and such irrelevant questions…..preparing for a wedding is easy, but realizing this picture of an admiring family gathered around me and singing my praises is impossible :-p