Jodha Akbar

I absolutely loved it!!! Or let me just say that I loved some parts of the movie so much that I am willing to overlook some of the bad points like the length, the cliches and some of the acting. I think after a long time we have a movie where the two lead characters actually take their own sweet time to fall in love. I love the langurous pace of dialogues in the scenes between Akbar and Jodha, the way he apologizes for sending her to her parents house, the way sometimes they are shown to sit with each other without the need to talk, the way she introduces him to her customs (sindoor!). I loved the picturization of the Jashn-e-bahara song, I think I'll be playing it on loop for the next several days. I love how there are conversations where one side is speaking in pure marwari hindi and the other side in refined urdu. I love the sniggets of history inserted in, like the first 30 mins which is essentially taking us through the rise of Akbar to the discussions on taxes and religion. I actually googled and read a lot on Akbar last night - very interesting to see how secular he was. After a long time I had a happy feeling in me after watching the movie. I could have just sat there longer seeing Akbar and Jodha fall in love. I don't want to compare it to Mughl-e-azam which was a much purer love story, but the pace of the love scenes reminded me of that classic.

This is not a review but just some random thoughts on the movie. I don't think I can ever be a good reviewer as I am too involved in the movie while watching it. I am still starry eyed and can't snap out of the movie - feels like I am 15 again!

Healthy Living

I have always believed that my eating habits are very healthy and that is one of the reasons why I have been naturally slim. This is obviously not true always but has been for most of my adult life. Whenever I feel I have put on weight, I can generally control my diet and slim down. I give the entire credit for my eating habits to my mother and I want to share some of the main things she followed which still serve me well.

• Plenty of fruits: I always remember eating plenty of fruits and always seasonal. The time for fruits was always in the evening with a glass of milk. Though at that time some fruits were considered a luxury, for example grapes were expensive and we didn't get them frequently, I think we have pretty much tasted everything. Even in winters, which has less variety than the summer bounty of mangoes and melons, I remember eating strawberries, apples, oranges, guavas, shakarkandi (sweet potato). I feel this was a very important habit mum put in us as I have met people who don't eat fruits or who don't like them and I don't understand it.
• No paranthas for breakfast: I came to know much later that parantha was a staple breakfast item in many households as we always had a glass of milk and one of following: eggs and toast, toast with paneer filling, poha, rice noodles or something along those lines. Paranthas which are effectively fried in ghee were always dinner and never frequent. This is not to say we were deprived or anything, I remember eating 4 parathas when mum introduced us to paneer paranthas for the first time!! I think she just inculcated an understanding of what things should be had in moderation.
• No snacking: This was not a formal rule in the house or anything, just that I don't remember our kitchen was ever stocked with store bought biscuits, namkeens etc. So when hungry, we always had fruits, home baked cookies or bread with home made jam/jelly. As a result, now I can't eat too much namkeen as it feels 'heavy'.
• Soda: Again, our house was never perpetually stocked with pepsi/coke. I remember we used to get a crate of sodas at the beginnning of our summer vacation which used to last around 3-4 months. So we got to have the carbonated drinks but not too much and I anyway took more to lemonade, rooafza and other non-carbonated stuff. I still can't finish a bottle of coke.

The reason I got thinking was a friend recently joined a gym to lose weight. They gave her all kinds of books and charts showing nutritional value of all food types and some of the things she mentioned seemed quite strange to me. I feel with all these nutritionists and dieticians obsessed with making us slim, they have to come up with new things every once in a while to justify their pay and in all these fancy calorie charts, we have forgotten the old wisdom, which I believe is still true. The two things that I have heard recently particularly got my goat -

• Not all lentils are good: When we were young, our science books told us lentils are a rich source of protein, however it seems somewhere along the way it stopped being true. I have heard some people say that not all lentils are good, or xyz lentil is fattening and I truly think this is nonsense. We always have one lentil along with subzi for dinner. As long you don't throw away the water you boil the daal in, I think they are a rich source of proteins and good carbohydrates.
• Bananas and grapes are fattening: This is another myth created by the above mentioned nutritionists. I think the amount of carbs in all the fruits are the same as you need to digest them so in all they are carb neutral. Moreover, fruits have so many other benefits that to be honest I won't mind eating them even if they have some carbs in them. I cannot believe that any fruit can actually be harmful to you and you can put on weight by say eating a peach. My mum actually recommends that people with sedentary lifesyles should have fruits for one of the meals and don't be shy with the quantity so eat as much as it takes to fill you!

Ok, just for the disclaimer, I hold no formal degree in this nor have I read any books. This are just things that have worked for me.

Has it already been 2 years?

It was our anniversary this week so I took half day off from work to spend some quality time with hubby. Unfortunately, my runny nose was followed by fever so we had to cancel our dinner reservation and anniversary was spent sleeping. S made quiche for dinner and a peach cobbler for dessert - doesn't it look very professional. It was awesome and could give any pie shop stiff competition. I, of course, just melted in a big pile of mush on the floor!

ps: I realized that the title doesn't have anything to do with the post, but who cares, it is my blog!!