The color of monsoon

There are those moments, that one single moment which you remember. I have a terrible memory but then there are these triggers that suddenly light up a part and I am taken back.

I was looking at some random things on Pinterest and then suddenly I see this poster of Beauty and the Beast (the Disney movie). You would think it would remind me of a love story but what it reminded me of was sitting in the Block 13 balcony in the monsoons. I would sit there for minutes and hours watching cars passing by. In the monsoon the whole city would be a shade of blue. There would be a slight smog/fog (I don't know what to call it) that made the city a bit hazy when you looked from the balcony. To tell you the truth I don't remember what I used to think of but I remember the colour. And the Beauty and the Beast poster had the same shade. Something so comforting.

Love

Shaki

Mushy me

I can't believe I haven't written anything this year! Shame on me!

But just to make it up, I am writing my feelings right here, right now. 

It's almost midnight and maybe I don't make much sense and I am getting sentimental. I was listening to some songs and I stumbled upon this one on my playlist.  It's the song I crooned to when it was released. I had sung this full throttle much to my mom's despair. I had always dreamed of and hoped to find someone I could sing this to. And I found Him.

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you're far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure
Don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
Lying close to you feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming,
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes and thank God we're together
And I just wanna stay with you
In this moment forever, forever and ever
I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
I don't wanna miss one smile
I don't wanna miss one kiss
Well, I just wanna be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just wanna hold you close
I feel your heart so close to mine
And just stay here in this moment for the rest of time, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Don't wanna close my eyes
Don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
and I'd still miss you, baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
Don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep, yeah
I don't wanna miss a thing
I don't wanna miss a thing

-Aerosmith

PC, this one is for you.

Peace

Shaki

Black and White

My experiments with black and white setting on my camera. I like the last one.

Peace,
Shaki

Ma ma foo foo (Same old, same old)

It's a new old city. I have stayed here for a major chunk of my life. I returned after more than 10 years to settle down. I continue to be mesmerized by the old building, the trees around. The weather takes me down in time to the safe spaces I grew up in. It reminds me of restless evenings, comfortable afternoons and exciting mornings. It's the only thing I relate to in this city now. The weather. Everything else is just there. It doesn't evoke the same feeling. But I want to explore. I want to make this city mine again.
I haven't been good at keeping in touch with people I care for and when I look at the horizon I wish I had. There are people I have cared for who are in this same old city and yet.

The city is the same but the circumstances have changed.

Peace
Shaki

Rimjhim

Rains in Calcutta continue to enchant me.

Peace,
Shaki

Rose Rose Khao :)

So, as unhealthy as it sounds we do eat out once a week even if it means getting chowmein from the roadside stall! It's our way of celebrating either the end of a week or the end of a very tiring day.
Recently, we were on our way around town trying to figure out whether we really wanted a new TV, and a LED at that. After tiring walks in the mall and listening to endless features of different LEDs, we decided to eat at a small but quite famous place in our neighbourhood.
Rose is a relatively big small place. The entrance is big and the place where we sat, the seating was along a long corridor. The host was quite courteous. He knew the menu but just could help us too much in ordering. But that doesn't usually bother us.
We decided to have chinese food. Yes, that's one of our favourites :) . They had a special Three Mix Noodles which seemed very interesting and so we decided to go with it. We ordered for the Chilly Chicken and a Schezuan Chicken to go with the noodles. The service was okay. We got hot food on our table in a reasonable time, you know, when you have enough time to discuss the day and be ready to eat your way through dinner. Unless you had Hugh Jackman with you in the morning, in which case you wouldn't want to eat anyways. The food was good. The Mix Noodles was a combination of Hakka Noodles, Garlic Noodles and Schezuan Noodles. Yumm! I enjoyed it thoroughly. The Schezuan Chiken was more hot than the Chilly Chicken, something which I hadn't expected. The chilly chicken was good too. I think you should have Schezuan Chicken only if you want to eat really really hot chicken. We don't usually have starters or dessert unless we go to a place which is really known for it. We did have sandesh from the sweet shop under our building to douse the fire in our mouths and bellies. The evening was nice. I enjoyed my meal. Took snaps before my family could dig in, after which there wouldn't be much to photograph anyways :)
Here's our dinner.

Peace,
Shaki

Khao khao

This is what we ate last Sunday. Mutton Kosha in the right and Mutton Keema in the left with some roties. This is a small little hole-in-the-wall called Rupa in Calcutta. It serves Mughlai dishes. Their menu consists of about just 7 or 8 dishes. There are hardly 10 chairs inside this restaurant. It's mostly a take-away place. Since it's Ramaddan now, a lot of the mughlai restaurants serve amazing food and it gets sold out pretty quickly. We faced the same issue. There were only 2 dishes available from their menu.  The Mutton Kosha was good and the Keema was super spicy. However they serve it with a salty lemony chutney which you can have at the end of the meal and all the spiciness just goes away! The chapatties/roties are just that. No oil or anything which is good because the mutton dishes had enough to make up for it. An okay experience in all. It would have been better if the Keema was not so chilly.

There you go, my first food/restaurant review!!

Hope I get around to writing some more :)

Peace,

Shaki