With a rather receptive and inquisitive to boot 4 year old in the house, it has become quite impossible to watch any meaningful prime time television. The spouse and I was hooked to Dexter but was forced to rethink our priorities when the 4 yr old threatened to cut us up into little pieces if we didn't comply with any of his requests! The mister was a huge fan of Two and a Half Men but safe to say, that too had to be ended when my son insisted on frenching any random person he met. Racking our brains and faced with the prospect of having to make meaningful conversation with each other to polish off the day, we chanced upon MasterChef and therein lay the solution to all our problems!



Me and spouse love food. And this is not jut to admit to gluttony but we actually appreciate gourmet food and all the pizzazz that goes with it. I am too lazy to cook on a regular basis and our ever expanding girth ensures that we are constantly on some diet or the other. MasterChef solves so many problems in our life!. And I believe that watching beautifully photographed and choreographed cookery shows is no less than food porn. You salivate, your heart beats faster, you lust for the roast rack of lamb that is "wonderfully caramelized on the outside but nice and juicy inside"..The kid is exposed to art and hey..everyone is happy at the end of the day. Plus, for foodies like us it's a guilt free trip..we can feast with our eyes without it showing on the waistline..win-win for all..
But like all porn, food porn is addictive as well. So while before, I would love to dig into my favorite plate of chicken fried rice and chilli chicken after a long and hard day, now I have to get my fix of cooking shows! MasterChef Australia has drawn to a close but you have MasterChef USA to follow..TLC has Nigella..how can anyone say no to Nigella?..channel surfing after that you get to some random housewife on Doordarshan making something quite unpalatable and calling it health food...ah well! sometimes that will have to do and like all porn addicts who needs a fix, I persist and amuse the health food lady. Half an hour goes by and the lady departs...I miss her already!!and that is when I realize..after 3 hours of non-stop cooking TV that:
1. I haven't moved my behind and cooked anything during the last one week.
2. I have stopped batting my eyelids and have become almost zombie like staring at the food.
3. I seriously need another hobby!

I am the quintessential kid from the 90s. I have done it all...big hair, boxy shirts, ill fitting pants, scary make up,..I grew up on Doordarshan fodder for a greater part of my life. So while Shoba De's "Swabhiman" was suave and sophistication, "Shanti" was modern and "Tehkikaat" was masala that we would discuss during the next day at school lunch. And these were weeklies, so imagine if we had a power cut or some other event that prevented us from watching it for one weelk, the anticipation and build up to next week's episode was nail biting. And all this changed when we got cable at home.
The first thing that changed was, of course, the number of channels. So while Doordarshan would have "Krishi Darshan" at 6 p.m. we were now spoilt for choice. Sitcoms started taking over our lives. And one of the first ones that we were addicted to was "Friends".
I think for the quintessential Indian Teenager from the 90s, "Friends" was a coming of age. There was humor that was not always politically correct. There was a lot of adult comedy which were until then totally kept away from in popular media. And it showcased a new and independent way of life, a very American view of things. So until then, Swabhimaan or Hum Paanch was about youngsters and their families and their relationships, "Friends" was lighter in the sense that, it was about just routine everyday stuff. It showed us that we did not have to grow up into a life that our parents grew up into. You could date friends, go out for coffee breaks, take intelligent decisions on your own and just have a great time all the time. The humour in "Friends" was fun and light. Certainly not high brow and definitely not crass. We gave it ten good years of our adolescent years.
The comedy sitcoms we see today all seem to sort of jump off from where "Friends" left us. And truly when today, like all things in the past, revisiting old episodes doesn't hold the same magic. For the magic was from the time and age it was..a simpler life and a simpler time.. Today there is adult comedy everywhere..a lot of grown ups making sarcastic jokes and pulling each other's legs..a lot of dysfunctional adults on television..but the time and age has passed and nothing touches your heart..Goodbye Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Monica and Chandler. It was fantastic while it lasted!

When I started this blog, I had promised myself that unlike most people I would'nt bore people with endless stories of how I spent the better part of the morning screaming at my kid or worse, about how he managed to hold a spoon yesterday and how cute that was. Trust me, I have been on the other side of that conversation way too many times, back in the good 'ol days of singledom, and I remember yawning and feeling like screaming out "will you shut up already!!". But unfortunately, part of the bane of growing up into an adult (which I am still a little unsure about whether I am actually there yet) is that there is no escaping the over reaching and all pervading effect that children have on our lives. So here goes, adequate warning issued to all those phobic of these conversations, you can switch to the next blog at this point.
One of the biggest challenges that I started to face when I got back to work from being a stay-at-home mom was the "Morning Madness". My getting back to work and my toddler starting school was hardly a coincidence, it was planned to the tee. Unfortunately, what I didnt budget for was the umpteen hours of planning and the boundless energy that was required to survive the "Morning Madness". There is about a short hour in the morning when everything seems to be flying here and there, clothes are flung, tempers flare, decibels go through the roof..tears are spilt galore on both ends of the battle. There is collateral damage often..the cook gets to share the brunt of the frustration because the toddler is too brazen to care.And finally as the dreaded hour draws to a close, much like a Beethoven melody drawing to its high noted climax, mother and son clamber onto a little hatchback and tear across the city streets.
Every day when I finally survive my crazy morning and get to work, I take a moment or two to savour my victory at the battleground. Another day gone by, another morning successfully circumvented. I heave a huge sigh of relief and spend the next ten minutes, just slinking back into my chair, closing my eyes and picturing rainbows on a quiet Sunday morning.