Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

Recent Posts

  • Why people come into your lives

    Some people come into your life to teach you lessons……this sentence has been reverberating in my mind ever since the 30th of December 2013. What happened on that day you may ask?

    Well, quite simply I met a young girl who told me all about the book called the Magic. Now most of you are familiar with Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret” and “The Power” which have gone on to become  best sellers and life changers. It seems that “The Magic” is the latest in this series of books that give you the secret to abundance and happiness. It seems strange that I should meet this girl at all places at an engagement party and that too at almost the end of the function. It seems almost fated that this girl came into my life to teach me something.

    As a matter of fact, all people come into your lives to teach you lessons. Some lessons are happy and some lessons are sad. Some lessons are painful while some are pleasant. Some lessons are obvious while some lessons aren’t. Some people come just once while others are there for a long time – life long even till you actually learn the lesson they are supposed to teach. And then they fall off ….

    For everything there is a reason and every person there is a purpose. Just think about it. It’s true.

  • Lobsters, Prawns and a Fishy Festival

    Today I had an unexpected free morning so I decided to go down to the fish market at Grant Road to get fresh lobster and prawn for my family lunch tomorrow. Saturday is not exactly the best day for the market but since I wanted to be sure that I did get the ingredients I wanted, I had to make sure that I had a day up my sleeve at best. So off I went at around 8.30 and found a sleepy looking market with most of the stalls empty. Lata, herself ,was setting up for the day and was keen on making the first sale of the day or “boni/bhavani”. She had a huge basket of prawn which she assured me were fresher than fresh and insisted that I buy some . They were quite pricey but then she told me that the waters were too cold and the fish were not biting so I was lucky to be able to get any fish at all! After the customary haggling which I’m simply no good at, we agreed on a price and quantity and she set about cleaning them while I chose the lobster.

    The lobster or crayfish as they are more correctly known were also hard to come buy. Infact PESCA which normally supplies good fish, have been out of lobster for quite a while. Once again Lata told me that lobster were even more difficult to source so I wonder how hotels and restaurants serve them so effortlessly.

    While she was cleaning the lobster, I chatted her up a bit and she told me that her knees were aching from all the work she’s done the past 64 years. She claims she started working in the fish trade since she was 13. That was a long time working I thought, especially one which involves a lot of hard work. Fisherwomen like all tradesmen get up early in the morning to get the first and best catch, spend the better part of the morning in the market and go home to spend another 3-4 hours in the kitchen. They also have time to raise families and Lata told me very proudly that her sons were into service. No smelly fish trade for them.

    When I complained about the rising fish prices, she told me that I should stop grumbling and just enjoy eating while I could : “As long as you have the means and the capacity to eat, enjoy” . Besides, she said lobsters were better than the best medicine and are therapeutic even for patients of TB and cancer!  I wonder at the truth of this statement but was ready to embrace her suggestion of eating while I could and felt less guilty about buying the lobster. One good tip she gave me was the upcoming festival in her village of Versova. From the 24th-26th January, the village of Versova would be transformed into one big Fish Party and all that I needed was a deep wallet and a  large stomach to enjoy the fruits of the sea.

    So all you fish aficionados what are you waiting for? Head out to Versova for a genuine fish festival.


     

  • The first grumble of the year – AVOID PRESSTO

    I’ve been made a sucker

    Since New Year Resolutions are invariably broken, I had decided to follow certain guidelines to have a happier year. Well, it seems that guidelines like resolutions are inevitably broken too. I just broke my first guideline  for the year which was THIS YEAR I SHALL NOT  GRUMBLE.

    Alas, I have to grumble on this blog post not merely to voice my discontent but mainly to warn other clients/customers of PRESSTO. Now I had undertaken a serious reconnaissance of all the laundries in our area a few months ago and had come to the conclusion that PRESSTO situated in the side lane off Peddar Road in Poornima Apartments was by far the most expensive but most reliable in terms of delivery and performance. Sadly they  have proved me wrong.

    I had attended a wedding on Sunday and found to my dismay that I had dropped some food on  my beautiful yellow ochre Kanjeevaram. Traditional Kanjeevarams are hard to come by and this sari was a particular favourite of mineso I came home and quickly washed off the stain with some water, since I was unsure of how soon I’d be able to get it to the cleaners. Well I managed to do so first thing Monday morning and told the manager that I wanted her to wash off the stain, wash off any other oil stains and more importantly remove all the starch.

    She of course  reassured me  that she couldn’t  guarantee anything and I very foolishly assumed  this was just a caveat. But she was right. PRESSTO did NOTHING to my sari because the stains were all there, there was no smell of dry cleaning liquid (perc) and the sari was as stiffly starched as before. All that PRESSTO did was to charge me Rs.265 for ironing my sari!!!

    So I’ve come to the conclusion that PRESSTO has made a complete sucker out of me and would like to warn all those who want to get their saris laundered – AVOID PRESSTO AT ANY COST.

    If you have the time and the space to single dry a sari, wash it at home in cold water, the way your granny did – in a solution of soap seeds (Aritha) or Genteel.

     

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