Crooking in the kitchen

I'm not a good cook. But I can manage with a few things.
My first main experience of cooking was right before I left for the US in 2010. Had to go to the states for close to 2 months and my mom helped me quickly learn a few things. But I usually stuck to preparing the select 4-5 thing I had known. Most of the times, I used to get the ready to eat things such as the ones from the MTR stable, or eat out with some colleagues. And at times I confess, I used to binge on ice-cream for dinner. God, the variety of ice-creams in Walmart!!!
So after returning from my US trip, having gained close to 7Kgs, I did not need to cook for quite a while since I was with my parent for a year and then moved to Mumbai for my MBA where we had dining arrangements on the campus premises. 
Recently, when I started working again after my MBA, I moved to a new city and thought of resuming my cooking, much to the disappointment of my mom. She always felt that I should hire a cook who can help prepare the meals since cooking was not really my skill-set. However, I had started off thinking that I will hire a cook soon after I get settled in. As the story goes, I started liking the process of cooking. I wanted to try newer things. I don't aspire to becoming a chef of a restaurant or remotely close to him, but wanted to atleast try and give myself more variety in terms of what lands on my plate.
The thing is, I was a bit sick of eating out and needed to get things as per my taste/preference. Additionally, I wanted to be a bit more careful about the calorie content I take. So cooking at home became something of a regular thing. Earlier I started off with simple things like Daal, Rice, simple vegetables, gradually moving on to making Rotis, Parathas, more vegetables, just short of making exquisite cuisines. I must confess, my work int he kitchen has not yet proved to be very successful, but I have been gradually improving. The thing is, I realized that I can judge how something will turn out to be before its done, so I can modify it mid-route. The whole process takes me over an hour easily, and this is when I am able to handle 2-3 things at a time. I'm able to multitask in the kitchen, and I never thought I could do that.
The bottom line is, I now enjoy cooking. I like chopping the vegetables into fine pieces. But, as it happens on Sunday, 24th June I got a cut on my thumb while pealing a papaya, and then after an hour I got a big cut on my index finger while chopping some tomatoes, and then later that evening, I got another cut on my palm trying to cut something else. All on my left hand, which by evening was covered in band-aids. Some days are meant not to be spent in the kitchen, despite your liking for the cooking.

From the eyes of a pedestrian

Before moving to Hyderabad, I had very high hopes of finding this city very comforting, convenient, and 'welcoming'. The reason for my high expectations were disappointment with Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore as potential cities where I would want to settle long term. I know its too early for me to look at a city from a long term settlement perspective, but I guess, I think long term for most things.
So when I moved in an apartment close to my Banjara Hills office, I was hoping that staying in a 'Posh' area automatically meant good quality of life, decent infrastructure around, all basic necessities are just a few minutes away. I never thought that one would need a car for traveling.

So, when I went for morning walks/jogs soon after moving in the apartment, I realized that a lot of roads don't have footpaths, despite those roads not being freeways. Most footpaths are lined with some or the other obstruction, so any pedestrian ends up spending 80% time of the journey on the road, sharing it with the motor vehicles. Unfortunately in India (unlike what I have seen in the USA), those on foot are considered inferior, and probably deserve to die in the eyes of motorists. so many times, have I seen cars over-speeding in narrow lanes, over-taking from the wrong side, jumping the red-lights, driving on the wrong side of the road. And mostly all this right in front of the traffic cops. So the other day when my friend Sharukh (From Mumbai) who bought a brand new car turned at a corner without giving a turn indicator, another collegue, Neha jokingly said, "Seems you have become a pakka Hyderabadi'.

So any new person moving to Hyderabad should know a few things about Hyderabad roads -
1) No one gives turn indicators. Its a question of honor. You use an indicator, you are a disgrace.
2) No one uses ORVM -Outside Rear View Mirrors, specially on motorbikes. The mirrors on Bikes are turned inside, making me wonder if the macho bike riders need it as their vanity mirror.
3) Drivers on the roads play real life Grand Theft Auto (GTA) in which running over pedestrians earns you points. (The reason is that many areas of Hyderabad have massive power cuts, so they need to utilize their adrenaline they saved up for playing PlayStation or XBox, and city roads are the only place they can use this adrenaline)
4) Honking needlessly is a necessity; else their weak bladder may give way to a wet floor in the car.
5) After mild rains, it is necessary to drive fast. Since there is no proper drainage system in Hyderabad for rain water, many roads get quite clogged with stagnant water. Ideal way to help pedestrians take a bath. Isn't it obvious that Hyderabad despite its lakes has massive water problems? Funny you readers need an explanation.
6) If you (as a pedestrian) are planning to share the road for walking with other motorists, be prepared to share a hospital bed with other pedestrians. The other day during my morning walk, I got hit by a biker who had all the road to himself with barely any traffic at 6:30AM. He simply wanted to drive with his closed eyes I guess. Probably to practice for the circus auditions to be held next week.
7) Bike riders for some reason don't switch on their headlights during late evenings and at night. One or two times, I noticed that while crossing a road in the dark, suddenly someone comes close enough and honks. Not sure if they are saving power or life of the bulb or just have night vision like Batman.
8) Even some pedestrians start crossing the road even with dense traffic on their way. The other day I saw a lady try to cross the road with heavy traffic heading her way and he frantically trying to wave and signal the on-coming cars to slow down. I guess a lack of subways/overhead bridges is also a major hindrance to the pedestrian movement.

Those from Hyderabad may complain that I have criticized the driving sense of the people of this city despite coming from other 'bad' cities like Delhi & Mumbai in terms of their road sense. Well, in my defense -

For Delhi -  (1) Enough Footpaths for pedestrians, (2) Decent Public transport - number of buses & THE METRO (beat this!!!), (3) Decent parks for morning joggers like me, (4) Enough & strict traffic policemen to regulate traffic - (FYI, I still have the challan copy from my fine that I had to pay for accidentally jumping a red light), (5) people have a basic sense of courtesy towards other drivers (well, except for the road rage, rampant use of guns).. I know this is a major point, but hopefully no one will pay much attention to this.

For Mumbai - (1) Most drivers have much higher driving sense than other places, (2) Good public transport - Good bus network, fairly decent local trains (though miserably crowded, the trains have rarely let us down), decent auto-walas, (3) courteous & helpful fellow travelers on the road or the train

While, criticizing the traffic conditions and movement of Hyderbad, a few other things I noticed that are common to Hyderabad with other cities like Delhi & Mumbai -
(1) Reckless bike riders - mostly the early to mid twenties riders who ride without helmets, trying to accelerate their bikes as if the bike is on Nitro Boosters. Not sure if they are trying to impress some girl or trying to play stuntmen for Hollywood directors on the lookout for the next Bond/Mission Impossible movie. I even noticed that bike riders in Hyderabad, Delhi are pretty desperate for attention. At both places I have seen them pass lewd comments at women. However, in Delhi often these comments get converted to rapes,.but who is worried about that? Seems everyone has accepted that its part and parcel of your life there. FYI, according to a recent report on Yahoo news, Hyderabad is 4th unsafe city. No points on guessing who leads the pack
(2) Drivers spitting on the roads - probably they think that the spit has some cleansing properties that will help clear the roads.
(3) Excessive honking - I know I have used this point to criticize Hyderabadis, but in all fairness, other cities also have their own bunch of #$#@$%^&* - # Censored due to inappropriate language.
(4) Scary bus drivers. These people handling the massive vehicles probably don't realize that one mild hand movement of theirs means the whole machine sways in either direction, close to knocking off someone right around it. Whenever such a thing happens, I for one try to either race ahead of the bus or fall back. Public transport buses jumping read-lights is also a common sight. Something one wouldn't expect the drivers to do considering that the government drivers are  probably not paid based on the distance/passenger count. (Correct me if I'm wrong). I recently had a near miss when I was trying to cross road (in Hyderabad) from a Zebra Crossing, and the only motor vehicle to simply ignore the red-light signal was a government operated bus. I shouted abuses at the driver, but he simply smirked. But I remembered, Delhi bus drivers are no different, so why just criticize Hyderabad.

I have seen my friend Sharukh manage driving here with some difficulty, until he stopped bothering about fellow travelers on the road. He mentioned, "In rome do as the Romans do, in Hyderabad, do as the Hyderabadis do"