Water Train - 77 words

Last month there was a short story (less than 78 words) contest in the Esquire magazine and participating in it was a good writing exercise for me. The experience that I wanted to capture was the train that brings water to the dry/desert regions of Gujarat (Kutch regions). I happen to travel in that train a couple of times back in the late nineties and have held the long dreary day close to my heart as one of the life changing experience.

Someday I hope to travel the region again and perhaps not in that slow train again but it’s a story worth sharing, I’ll have to take time for it…

For now, my 77 words:

The screeching sound of crank shaft and wheels jostling together and the jolt from the engine pulled the train out of the platform. As the clamor of the people quieted under the steady lulling train sounds, the desert sand roared in with the iron wheels, babul needles sharp and stiff, defied the triumph of drought while the cloud less blue sky bent down to kiss, for the train brought the water that the sky failed to deliver.

Soo line caboose, a photo by shalini_devesh on Flickr.

Ultra Simple Diet

I am ‘Life is short, stay awake for it’ kind of girl. Yup that meant guzzling multiple cups of coffee with extra shots to keep me going. But this (Ultra simple Diet) diet made me realized that I don’t need tumblers of caffeine to keep me awake. And also that when my body needs rest, I should allow it to rest and not push it against a wall till it collapses, which is my usual style of living.


Trust me, I have had my share of fad diets, but for past few years I had mostly resorted to eating healthy and balanced meals with little portions of just about everything, there was no forbidden food. And I did lose all my baby weight in due course just by monitoring the quantity of food and working out but recently I struggled to find the optimum balance and so when my friend recommended this diet, I got a copy of the book from the library. I was skeptical first but what encouraged me to try it was my bad skin allergic reaction from earlier this summer. All my doctor could prescribe was steroids to keep allergic reaction down and Benadryl to sleep when the steroid made me all wired up. Of course, I didn’t follow the entire medication course and started experimenting with food, wine and caffeine and soap & lotions. It was tough to figure out what caused it since the allergen made me photo sensitive (which I realized later) and so as long as I minimized the exposure to sun the reaction was somewhat under control. I studied the above mentioned diet book for almost 3 weeks before I committed to it.

Anyways, long story short, I thought if there are any toxins or allergens in my diet that is causing inflammation and adding to the toxicity levels, I should be able to figure it out. This diet recommends a self-assessment of the body toxicity levels based on a score of questions as a gauge for improvement while on the diet. My toxicity levels were not alarming at all but I decided to go on the diet anyways.

In short, this diet teaches you to eat sensibly with more thought to what you are eating and since we all run short on time to actually think about our food, let alone plan it a week in advance it was a good exercise.

Highlights:

It warranted no use of alcohol or caffeine, along with no dairy to reduce the toxins and inflammation causing agents.

It focuses on eating good quantity of vegetables, two cups at each meal time along with vegetable broth to curb hunger pangs.

It included proteins, 4 oz of beans/fish/chicken breasts for lunch and dinner along with protein powder in the breakfast shakes.

The diet recommends good fats through olive oil for cooking and nuts for snacks and also flaxseeds and borage oil.

The carbs came from beans, fruits (berries in particular that are low glycemic index), vegetables and half cup of brown rice at each meal time.

My customizations (and cravings):

The diet calls for only certain vegetables but because summer is short in these parts of the world, I ate everything that was available fresh in the famers market including tomatoes, cucumber and eggplants.

I used a lot of spices including cloves, cinnamon, ginger, garlic etc to keep my food flavorful despite the repetitive menu.

The diet calls only for Rice Protein powder but I occasional used soy and whey protein powder too.

Although I stayed off caffeine and alcohol, DH continued with his morning coffee and occasional glass of wine and the diet still worked (controlled sugar levels) for him.

I missed not eating dark chocolate, cereal milk and yogurt terribly. I did eat Soy yogurt but it’s not the same thing.

The diet claims that you stop missing the sweets after the first couple days of initial body adjustment but I continued to miss it throughout my diet.

My energy levels weren’t as high as the book and my friend claimed it to be, I crashed at about 4:00pm every single day and I found myself quieter than usual on this diet.

The diet calls for moderate exercise but with my body type, I need to sweat to burn fat and so I noticed that the weighing scale registered weight loss only on days when I worked out.

It called for 2- 20 minute yoga sessions, a 20 minute bath at the end of the day and a good 8 hour sleep; well there were days when I had to choose between activities to decide how I’d spent my precious 20 minutes. But I did rediscover lavender baths/ shower and the importance of yoga in my life.

All in all, I like this diet and would very much go on it again and more importantly I gained a new perspective and even though I am not on a diet anymore, I don’t eat more than 4oz protein in a meal, because now I know I don’t need more. Like I said it was a good exercise to gauge what your body truly needs and what is just greed. And inspired by my newly gained healthy perspective I have challenged myself to run a total of 100 miles before my birthday. (I guess I did say that out loud, may be that’ll make me more accountable, just may be…)

And just because a post without pictures makes it boring, here's two from our visit to the local Arboretum

Kids at the fountain

Picnic under the Magnolia tree

The space between us - book review

This months book club book was 'The space between us' by Thrity Urmigar.

It was a very interesting reading and it gripped the attention to the end and I found it specially close to my heart as the story is based in Mumbai, India and closely depicts the relationship between a Parsi lady and her maid servant. And I could relate to the dichotomy of the connection the two ladies had formed.

All in all a good read that conveys beautifully the change in fortune that time can bring and also the life in the slums of a still developing country. What it lacked was a credible ending, it left too many avenues for open contemplation and everybody in the book club had a similar comment, the was too vague and open for interpretation.

The book was a very interesting read and generated a lot of cross culture conversations including family value and expectations. The 'Parsis' are immigrants to India from Persia and follow the pre- muslim religion of Zoroastrian. The discussion about hanging on to old beliefs and changing according to times was another stimulating discussion.

I had talked to the book club hostess about bringing some of the Mumbai culture to the food served that night and so I made Akuri (scrammbled eggs) and served them in pre made filo dough cups from Ikea. And made some bhel, the street side food particularly popular among the beach goers. There's even a bollywood song for that... (Chowpatty jayenge, bhelpuri khayenge ). Of course, I wore a sari as the cover page of the book shows a lady wearing sari and it generated many conversations.

All in all, this book was good for book club as it generated many dicsussions from food, to culture, to dresses and some religion too but it might not be suit every individual and its very specific to the temprament of the reader.

Santorini, Oil on Canvas, 36"x24"

I used to paint a lot more compared to now when I was in Grad school. It afforded me a couple of free weekday afternoons where I was free to hit the gym or spend time at the art studio. This is one of the last paintings I started there back in 2004. What followed next was graduation, a full time job and motherhood.
Fast forward to September 2011 and I am calling it finished. When I used to paint back in the days I needed my art teacher’s confirmation before I quit fidgeting with the colors and now that I have moved 60 miles from my art studio and have not seen my teacher is past couple of years, its tough to stop myself from going back to fixing something or the other on the canvas based on my mood. And hence the statement, ‘Calling it complete’.

The inspiration for the painting came from my desire to visit the place, the uniformity in colors of private residences and the of course the giant blue domes in the warmth of setting sun. It was a very tiny image that inspired me to paint it but it wasn't detailed enough to enlarge it to the scale I was painting on so I used a calendar image of the area to add to the details just in different light.

It was an interesting process to add finishing touches to the buildings; they were a wonderful reminder of the Perspective design in the ‘Architecture Design course’ during the undergrad years. I devoted one kids’ free day to finishing this painting and I am glad I did, in fact I was so happy with those moment that I want play more with colors. I am not sure if it’s going to be in an Art journal, on canvas or some mixed media but I am sure that I’ll go down this path again soon and will definitely share the outcomes.