PSLE Year Week 5 Updates

Another week has gone by. This week has been marked by sickness in the house. BB started it last week, followed by S and then GG who had it the worst of the three.

BB bounced back with a one-day course of Panadol, but when GG started coughing last Sunday, I gave her some Panadol and cough syrups that night and though she seemed a bit warm on Monday morning, she felt ok enough to go to school.

Back from school she was miserable. Coughing, a bad throat and even difficulty in breathing. Took her to the doctor who gave her two days of medical leave. But she insisted on only staying at home for a day. She didn’t want to miss school as its the PSLE year. My gut feeling is that yes she caught it from GG and S, but it’s also stress-related from the big exams she will be facing in October.

Not even 12 and stress like this! How i hate this system for making our children go through this at this age!! But we don’t really have a choice, but to make the best of the situation and equip the children to be resilient and to be able to face everything they encounter…I’m sure now I sound like one of the official government adverts 😉

In My Hands Today…

The Space Between Us – Thrity Umrigar

Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. A powerful and perceptive literary masterwork, author Thrity Umrigar’s extraordinary novel demonstrates how the lives of the rich and poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and how the strong bonds of womanhood are eternally opposed by the divisions of class and culture.

Wish we could mute some people!

When you work with someone eight hours plus everyday five days a week, you get to learn quite a bit about that person!

Some people immediately connect with you and you become friends at the snap of a finger and some people, for reasons probably unknown to you, except at a very subconscious level, you just can’t seem to be in the same room with without getting irritated with something they say or do.

There was this person J who worked with me a few years back who was someone like that. He walked into a cushy job with hardly any talent, actually I am wrong; he did have the talent to schmooze with the boss and since he used to help the boss with a lot of personal things (read ferrying him home and to the office, using his personal time to do the boss’ personal work), you get the drift right?….

Anyway, this person used to bulldoze people and get them to do work and take complete credit for it.

This story is about one such incident, which at that time made me mad, but now in retrospect, makes me laugh!

At that time, the management committee wanted to hire a deputy for ‘the boss’, but the boss didn’t want anyone but him to be the alpha male of the pack. He didn’t have much choice, so he reluctantly advertised for the position. When the applications started coming in, he sent the whole bunch over to me to short-list, which I did. Then interview invites were sent to some 7-8 of my top picks and the big day arrived! Since I was responsible for shortlisting people, I was asked to join the boss and two other senior persons for the interview. J could not take this lightly, since he saw that as diminishing his status, so he got himself also invited to the interviews. Another colleague, who was in the same position as me and J (experience, qualification etc.) rounded up the number as she could not be ignored too.

So we are six people in the room, of which four are technically people who could be reporting to the successful candidate. The interviews start and by the second interview I realized one thing – every question I asked the previous candidate was now posed hurriedly by J to the next candidate. The first time he did it, I thought it was a coincidence, the second time I noted it, I got irritated and by the third candidate, it became funny! Then it became a game with me to ask the most candidate-specific question I could ask (which was easy for me since I had reviewed their resumes before short listing them) so that J could ask them the next time round.

And it was funny the way J would ask the question quickly (the first or the second) before I was able to do so, so it that I could not reuse my own questions…

The shocker was that at the end of this whole pointless exercise, ‘the boss’ was quick to appreciate his protégé with the insightful questions he asked.

It was puke or laugh hysterically there and then! I took the cowards way and excused myself to run to the washroom where I could laugh and rant simultaneously

In My Hands Today…

Family Matters – Rohinton Mistry

Rohinton Mistry’s enthralling novel is at once a domestic drama and an intently observed portrait of present-day Bombay in all its vitality and corruption. At the age of seventy-nine, Nariman Vakeel, already suffering from Parkinson’s disease, breaks an ankle and finds himself wholly dependent on his family. His step-children, Coomy and Jal, have a spacious apartment (in the inaptly named Chateau Felicity), but are too squeamish and resentful to tend to his physical needs.

Nariman must now turn to his younger daughter, Roxana, her husband, Yezad, and their two sons, who share a small, crowded home. Their decision will test not only their material resources but, in surprising ways, all their tolerance, compassion, integrity, and faith. Sweeping and intimate, tragic and mirthful, Family Matters is a work of enormous emotional power.

Thai Style Inspired Green Apple Salad

I haven’t been cooking in a long time, in fact ever since my present helper came on board – 2 years ago! When she takes her weekly off on Sundays, I usually just put together something, nothing that I take effort to make, or make old favourites that everyone likes. So me cooking this dish is unusual in the current scenario.

I usually have a salad with every meal and was getting tired of the same ole, same ole vegetable salad! Then saw some green apples at home and went online to see if there were any recipes that I could use or adapt. I came across this one and felt this was something I could adapt for us. So here’s my version of a Thai Style Inspired Green Apple Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sized green apples
• 8 strawberries
• 2 smallish red onions
• A handful of raw peanuts
• A handful of raw cashewnuts
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt, sugar and lemon juice to taste
• A bit of freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Cut the red onions into thin slices. Heat oil in a pan and first fry the peanuts and cashew nuts till they are crisp. Take out and drain in kitchen paper. In the same oil, fry the onion till they become brown and crisp. Drain on kitchen tissues.

Chop the strawberries into halves and chop them lengthwise. Make thinish slices of the green apple, and chop it into matchsticks. Add the sugar and salt and keep aside.

Just before eating, add the onions and nuts to the salad. Season with lemon juice and freshly ground pepper and enjoy!!

We ate this with Moong Dal Khichadi (recipe coming soon)

Note: Make this salad as close to the eating as possible as the green apples will turn brown otherwise. Also, if the green apples are sour, you can skip the lemon juice altogether.

Verdict: Yummy and different from what I usually make. My version was a tad sour, so when I make it again, I will either go easy on the lemon juice or omit it.