Horn OK Please!

Like most of you know, I drive an awesome looking, jaw dropping, sexy car called Hyundai i20 (sorry i had to exaggerate for my own ego boost :P). Lately this piece of metal has been blessed with a unique feature. This feature is not available on any of the cars on Indian roads as yet (so proud!). It enables the driver to be humble to the fellow members on the road and also provides a kick of adventure sometimes. We actually go to the service center every 3 months and leave a note of Thanks for the "engineers" who make this possible for us and the special attention and the continuous support they provide.

For those of you who are envying this special blessing my car has - stop right there! I was talking about the presence of a silent horn or rather the absence of one! We have this pattern with the car. First week from the service center, car is screaming at the top of it's voice, scaring everybody on the road! second week and the car is still loud but now singing melodiously. Third week and there are symptoms of cough and cold. fourth week the throat is so bad that it makes a hoarse sound instead of sounding like an actual horn! Fifth week there is absolute silence! From then on, the car plays a "dumb" role on the roads!

Life.....

Today is my in-laws 39th wedding anniversary. 39! WOW! First, wishing them a great wedding anniversary and many more years of togetherness! We celebrated today by visiting an orphanage cum old age home 20 kms from Tambaram - New life Old Age Home. We started off early and drove on good and bad roads to reach the small place. We spent couple of hours there, went around the place, said hi to the welcoming inmates, ate lunch with them, heard a very nice old lady sing and came back. all in all, it was a great visit!
This place is owned by a couple who left their Govt Jobs and started "New Life" with a small hut. Today the place has around 64 kids and 60 Old men and women. Aunty (Owner) spoke to us about all the challenges they face in the day to day operations of the place and how they need to struggle to keep the place clean and livable. She had loads of stories and experiences they are going through to run this place. Few of the surprising things I heard were "There are so many people ready to donate, "money" is actually not a problem, "man power" is the problem. There is nobody who comes forward for voluntary service. Everybody needs salary. Lots of youngsters promise to come on weekends and teach the kids, but not many turn up! They tried recruiting MSW (Masters in Social Work) graduates and they demand 25K per month salary as a start!".
Well that's the "kadwa sach". WE have no time to spend on anything which can help the society! And NGO's like these just keep struggling without much support! I left the place with a heavy heart after looking at all the nice and cheerful oldies staying there. I have never understood how some son/daughter would have the heart to leave their old parents in a place like this. There are so many inmates who are from well to-do families and lived a very great life until they were suddenly thrown out of the house because they were of no "use" to the family. These so-called "families" don't even bother to visit them or ask about their health. That's worse than the kadwa sach I just spoke about!
Anyways, at the end of the day my in-laws were happy that they made a choice to help them and celebrate their anniversary by spending time with them :)

Chai ni Chah

Before I get started,Chai = tea and chah = liking.

It was our first breakfast at andamans, when Vishnu and I were enjoying the hot omelettes with toasted bread and a hot cup of tea! I was pleased with the breakfast served at the restaurant as they offered toasted bread, butter, jam, omelette and yummy tea. :) I dont know why, but a nice yummy cup of tea for breakfast makes my day! I was a big tea addict and now due to diet restrictions I have reduced to 1 tea a day (sob sob)
So back to the topic, of our lovely breakfast, I started enjoying my tea based breakfast and started telling stories about my lovely tea days (before marriage days to be specific ..;)..) and in the process re-discovered the lovely combinations of chai which I have personally enjoyed. I managed to consolidate this list within our half hour breakfast chat, and vishnu thought that I could write a thesis on tea and prove that tea can become the best side dish (in my case main dish) ever! :P

Here goes my list (in no specific order)

1. The most popular and obvious combination is Milk bikis biscuit dipped in tea (my team also enjoys this)
2. Marie Biscuit dipped in tea - Classy!
3. Butter biscuit with tea - Love it!
4. Rusk with tea - dhaba ishtyle (my style, apply butter on the rusk and then dip in tea!)
5. Toasted bread with butter spread and then dipped in tea - my staple breakfast during school days!
6. Porai biscuit soaked in tea (OMG my fav Ganesa bakery porai biscuits..Mariya are u listening?;)..)
7. Wafer biscuit dipped in tea (Another Ganesar bakery special)
8. Rumali roti, roasted on tawa with little oil (sidhpuri ishtyle: The roti soaked in tea is a desi breakfast for most of the sidhpuri bohri's)
9. Fried appalams with tea, and if you are a bohri, you would know meetha papad crushed in chai is super combination
10. Omelette and tea - yes, it is a great combo, ask my mom!

I am sure you would have heard one or more of these combinations for the very first time, and if you are a tea lover, try them and let me know how u find it :) My dear husband thinks that I can eat chicken fry and tea together and claim to be an awesome combination...haven't tried it as yet though ;)