Apartments with English names

We decided to invest in the Great Indian property market. So we got down to first searching on Google and then doing the rounds. If I had closed my eyes and read the details of each apartment I would have thought we were living in some lovely English countryside with green sweeping meadows and strawberry and cream for breakfast.
the property was named Sherwood Gardens or Windmere with swans .... in the lake (there is a lake with swans in a 10 km radius ), Greyshott , Bella Tuscany ( in the middle of perungudi town panchyat!) etc etc

They are all described as the ideal habitat for the global resident. A place where you can put up your legs, watch your children grow. dip yourself in the jacuzzi hob nob with equal minded gullible people !!
We narrowed on one Park Rozalia . One World .One place. The ad featured a child running around the place. The kid looked Danish , swedish ... and looked so happy . The features read like a country club .
So we bought it . Mainly because we were getting tired of people asking us if we owned property in India . And the next question always was how much did you pay. Any amount you said wasnt enough to impress. Always they got it a paisa cheaper than you. And they always had a man who could get it at a cheaper price.
Arrey you have to buy in Chennai. If you said You know I bought in Chennai. No No Coimbatore was the place to be.....So you never get it right
Ok so we bought this apartment. Atlast we were part of the I own property brigade. The apartment took 4 years in coming. The jacuzzi is till a mud pit . Maybe mud bath is more the in thing. The amphi theatre looks even more ancient that its original cousin in Rome . The greenery is reduced to 5 potted plants . But wait we have a lovely view of the marsh. My husband is into high brow stuff like bird watching . So we thought this was the ideal place we could sight migratory birds , catch orion at night. Wow that was heaven. except the Corporation decided to dump its garbage right outside .
So while we were designing this dream house . we got sucked into buying another one. This was bang in the centre of Chennai. The parents said it was ideal You see we were 10 minutes from them, So under their nose , we moved from left nostril to right nostril thats all.Very posh and all . There is garbage outside. But thats only outside. Atleast they kept their trees and we have a garden . But the clinching argument in our favour was the name . It was called Varuna . Atleast not phoren name. And my mother reasoned with me Varuna... Vishy and Aruna .... its a sign. Yes it was . We now live there and trying to rent out the piece of english haven in Pallikarnai . Any takers. I can arrange for free strawberry and cream and a white kid to boot....

Amuse Bouche

The word sounds so funny. Amuse Bouche pronounced Amyz Bu. Sounds like a friendly ghost Amyz Boo. On googling i found out this had a lot more meaning. Bite sized portions that tell a story . Well it could be me. I come in a bite sized portion and pack quite a punch. On a more serious note , chefs actually take a lot of pain to make these bite sized wonders. Free peanuts , papads and breads do qualify but an amuse bouche should open the apetitite and ¨make the stomach just suitably hungry. some of my ideas for an Amuse Bouche -

Pastry dough- ready made variety . cut circles in them add some cumin roughly crushed . Mash some potatoes and channa top with tamrind sauce and fresh chopped mint and coriander and a dollop of yoghurt. This what I call Chaat canape
Bruschetta makes for excellent amuse bouche. To make it more chic . Cut the bread real thin and bake . Add tomatoes then a layer of olive puree (blitz black olives garlic and red chilli) top with pesto !! this is heaven
I love Amuse Bouche especially when you know that they are free. the more exquisite the freebie bite the more expensive the bill.
So sometimes free peanuts are not so tacky

women´s day

India is on a overdose of celebrating special days and women´s day is the latest entrant . March 8th promises to be ore da special. Judging by whats on offer. women are only interested in beauty tips. by now havent we caught on.... on winter care for hair and summer tips for glowing skin.... then of course we have cooking session. yes thank you we do that everyday. how many ways are there to bake a cake or make kadhai paneer . the more entertaining ideas were stress busters where we could play games ... i have a better idea. can we just sleep over it . just wear a pair of old pjs . push the pillow over our heads and sleep till the day is over and then we can just celebrate just another day.... march 9th . semai plan na?