Upper Class Virgin

On our way to Dubai, I got stuck sitting the middle section next to big guy who kept usurping not only our shared armrest, but the head rest on my seat as well. I gave him a couple of hard nudges as he slept -- which I regretted later, because my GOD did he smell BAD. Though it was only a 7 hour flight, it was horrible, and I decided that me and Vaishali were going to indulge ourselves on our way back by upgrading to Upper Class.

Virgin Upper Class -- A Flying Experience. They're really not kidding when they say that. Virgin has changed the normal structure of side-by-side seats to diagonally placed seats, so everyone gets a window, and there are walls separating you from the passenger next to you. They kind of looked like open caskets, lined up next to each other.You never have to get stuck next to an overly gregarious passenger again! Personally, I didn't like the system as much because it meant I had to reach my head high enough over the wall to talk to Vaishali. It didn't really matter though because Vaishali slept the entire 8 hours without even waking up for the bathroom, forget about meals.

Virgin also offers a choice of various 'amenities' in the course of the flight. I chose the head & neck massage, and anxiously awaited it through the flight. I was paying a sh--load of money -- I wanted every penny's worth.

I was lying down about to take a nap when the stewardess told me that it was my turn for the massage. I excitedly got up and walked towards the back room where they had set up a chair, separated by a curtain. I felt a little disoriented and thought that maybe I got up too fast. As she began my massage, I took deep breaths, to make this strange feeling go away. But it didn't go away -- and I started seeing blackness in front of my eyes. I asked the stewardess if I could get some water, and I remember feeling around for the glass that they placed in my hands. And that's all I remember.

I woke up, what must have been a few seconds later, and I see a male steward kneeling in front of me, and he says 'Oh, she's all right, she just fainted.' He removes the oxygen mask from my face and hands me the glass of water. Oxygen mask!!! How embarrassing is that?! They walked me over to a bed and told me to rest.

As we were about to land, the stewardess asked me to fill out a form, as they have to report any 'health incidences' that take place on the flight. Kutu tried to peer over from her seat to see what was going on -- that was the first time I liked Virgin's coffin-style seating.

Moral of the story -- don't drink wine in high altitudes. Even if it is only 1 glass.

NOT a funny story ... yet

One of the many wonderful items from my wedding 'trouseau' includes some fabulous bedding. These 1 million count Egyptian cotton sheets make us feel like we're soaking in the lap of luxury. Really -- it's amazing what a difference nice sheets, pillow covers, and blankets can make. They're ridiculously nice, and come with a ridiculous price tag too.

I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that King was only covered by the blanket, and not the flat sheet underneath (that protects my blanket from having to be washed every week). So I get up and hand him some of the sheet, and say 'Here, take this.' I turn back to go to sleep and hear a loud rrrrrip! I turn back in shock, and ask 'How did it rip?!' and he says to me 'You told me to tear this, so I did.'

I couldn't believe it. My He-Man Husband tore right through my brand new sheets!! He aplogized, saying he was asleep and didn't know what he was doing -- but why would you rip something up without question?

Anyway, I'm trying to get customer service to replace my sheet. Of course I'm leaving out the part about my testosterone driven husband with latent tendencies to rip things to shreds out of the story.

I hope you're not laughing at this story -- because it's still not funny to me -- not until I get my replacement sheets in the mail.

Durga Puja

This was my first Durga Puja, and definitely an important one, as I'm officially a Bengali now -- how strange is that? I was actually quite excited about it, and we came to San Jose the night before so that we could easily make it to the Sunnyvale Temple in time the next morning.

Jhumi aunty had given me a beautiful silk & brocade sari that I was looking forward to wearing, especially when I found a blouse at home that matched perfectly with it. I have tied chiffon/georgette saris on myself before with reasonable success, so I figured, if someone helps me with the pleats, I should be able to handle a silk sari, right?

Wrong. After about 5 attempts over the course of 45 minutes, I still looked like a big, poofy ball of silk -- not at all the classy, svelte Bangali Bou I had envisioned when I saw the sari. I finally had to make a desperate emergency call to Hina aunty, and drove over in a rush to have her tie my sari. She had two customers sitting around, waiting, as she tied my sari. Embarrassing to say the least, but a huge relief at the same time.

We headed out for the temple -- 2 hours later than the scheduled time. Lucky for us, we were just in time (IST zindabad). I couldn't believe how crowded this place was. Hundreds of people stood in front of the stage where all the idols stood, and a man on loud speaker said something in Bengali, that I of course could not understand. When he finished, Jhumi aunty grabbed my arm and said 'Come, let's go.' And we began fighting through the crowd to get to the front. I lost King to three aunties behind me -- I guess he was being slightly more polite about getting through than us. I'm glad we fought to get to the front because I got to see the entire stage -- Durga in the middle, and her four children, 2 on each side -- Saraswati, Laxmi, Ganesh, and Kartik. I didn't even know Durga had kids. Probably because I didn't realize until that moment that Durga is an incarnation of Parvati.

We grabbed flowers from the aluminum (pronounced 'aluminium') trays being passed around, and then started repeating the words of the Pandit ji. That was a fun challenge for me. We repeated the entire thing 3 times, by the third time I knew what was coming next sometimes. If it's the same thing said every year, then in a few years I might even get it all down! Understanding it is another issue however.

Traditionally, you are supposed to throw the flowers on the goddess. But, the lazy organizers at the Sunnyvale Temple didn't want to bother with cleaning up flowers on the asphalt parking lot below, and found another solution they deemed suitable. After distributing the flowers from the aluminum trays, they simply collect the flowers back into those same trays, and one designated person will offer some of the flowers onto the goddess. Is it me -- or is that just LAME? They've taken away the whole essence of the 'pushpanjali,' the offering of flowers.

And that was my first Durga Puja. Oh, and during lunch I tripped and dropped a whole tub of sambar onto my chest, and was stuck with wet and dry dal all over me for the rest of the afternoon. And then when we were leaving, I had a parking ticket waiting for me too.

Get the Hint?

My birthday and wedding gifts are still trickling in ... which is nice because it feels like an ongoing Christmas. In the last two weeks, I've received 6 cookbooks and a full (silver) silverware set for 8, amongst other things. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely taking the hint.

So to inaugurate my new cookbooks, the other night I made 2 dishes from 2 different books. An eggplant-tomato-basil risotto (the hubby loves all my risottos, lucky for me), and sundried tomato-feta mini cupcakes. I thought the dinner was quite a hit, if I must say so myself. We even had a guest eating with us (Alexis), so that made it all the more motivating.

Now I'm trying to figure out today's menu.

Yay!

Today we bought a TV, dresser, mirror, dining table ... and a few days ago we bought an entertainment system and cabinet for the bathroom. All of these items will be arriving in the next few weeks -- I can't wait!

Feels like I'm married

I think this weekend was the first time (in our one month marriage) that I felt like I was married. The impetus behind it was my whole family left for England, leaving me and the hubby in the U.S. all by ourselves.

I'm making it sound more dramatic than it is, but seeing off my parents and knowing that I wasn't going on a family vacation with them is definitely a first in my life. After dropping them off, King and I went furniture shopping for the first time for our apartment. It was a lot of fun -- agreeing and disagreeing on many things. We ate out most of the weekend, or did take out, and would come home exhausted, and plop down in front of the TV and watch hours and hours of BSG (Battlestar Galactica). I know it probably sounds boring and domesticated to other people, but it was really a lot of fun.

So -- to answer the question you hear the most after you get married -- 'How's married life?' The answer is -- married life is great :-)

Muhavare

I've been fortunate enough to have a mother that forced me to speak in Hindi as I was growing up -- something that I cannot thank her enough for. On top of that, she is a very literary person, with excellent language skills. Even my father, who is more left-brained and doesn't boast of poetic license, grew up hearing many idiomatic phrases from his mother. This combination has resulted in me developing a love for Hindi muhavare (मुहावरे- idiomatic sayings).

There are dozens that I've grown up hearing, and more that I hope to discover ... I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to share with this blog ... and I believe this is it. Of course, it will be interspersed with the mundane happenings of my life, and all my 'oh-so-important' thoughts on anything and everything ... but the muhavare will remain stalwart throughout.