Coffee cravings

waaaaaaaa. i want to fly back to india and have coffee.

i had coffee at several different occasions in kolkata -- restaurant, wedding, relatives' houses, guesthouse -- and each cup was as fabulous as the rest. there's something with the way indians make coffee, or maybe something about the beans, that has reduced everything else i've ever tasted to overpriced industrial sludge. to this day i simply can't bring myself to buy a hot coffee from starbucks or seattle's best.

cup one: wedding joe

the creamy cuppa pictured above was one of several that i had at one of the ceremonies before shivaani's (marlon's closest friend from p&g) wedding.

it was love at first sip -- imagine coffee crumble ice cream from arce dairy (my utter, utter favorite) melted, heated, poured into a cup, and topped with froth. gggggzzzzzzzzzzz.

fortunately, at the wedding ceremony proper. which lasted from about 6pm well until 2am, there was more of the same. utter, free-flowing bliss.

you know those wedding guests who take advantage of the free drinks to booze themselves into oblivion? that was me, except i was od'ing on all that java. see caffeine-glazed expression on right.

cup two: kape de muchacho

i spent the second half of my kolkata stay at a guesthouse booked by shivaani's family for foreign wedding guests. marlon, ge (another p&g friend) and i were attended to most meticulously by no less than six manservants. i remember coming into the house for the first time and being dumbfounded by a flurry of manservants. (me to marlon: "aba! at bakit napakarami nating mga muchacho?")

our muchachos (or mokongs), as we came to call them, were extremely adept at cross-cultural communication, were fabulous in the kitchen (i'm getting hungry just thinking about their breakfast omelet with chilies), played bouncy indian music all over the house, and made divine coffee and tea.

by the time we left, we were harboring evil plans to kidnap one of the muchachos and set up a cafe or restaurant here. but dagnabbit, even the youngest one was too big to force into a suitcase.

sigh. i want muchacho coffee.

afterthought: why, for a country that supposedly grows such great coffee beans, do we have such crappy coffee?

Lord, give me a lover!

this meme from jeline reminds me of three things.

1. a diary entry i wrote while my first relationship was in its death throes. it detailed the things that i realized i wanted in a guy (ah, yes, adolescent luuurve -- when you don't know what you want and thus go along with everything). i looked up the list some time after marlon and i got together and realized that i got everything i wanted. visualization works, folks!
2. a list tatat and i made in freshman year, enumerating the various body parts and personality elements of guys we knew that, combined, would make -- tadaaaah! -- the perfect guy. i seem to recall we were united on our choice of the perfect voice. tatat, do you remember who? mwehehehe. oh god, that list was hilarious. i should dig it up. what boy-watchers we were.
3. a column jessica zafra once wrote about an old sampaguita? lvn? film called, lord give me a lover. i don't remember much from it except that the heroine runs out of her bahay kubo into the rain, makes sampa against a tree limb in classic forties movie tradition, and cries (you guessed it!) lord, give me a lover!

it's taken me days and days to put this list together and i don't think it's perfect. i haven't had to think about these things in a looong while! anyway, here goes.

part 1. eight different points of my perfect lover.

1.1. he should be passionate, or know what it feels like to be passionate. about something. anything. passion also means i will probably find you genuinely interesting. ambition and drive, passion's two cousins, are welcome. obsession is not.

1.2. he should be low-key. i hate loud people who are always in your face, and there's room for only one ksp person in a relationship. mwehehe. if even one person he knows can describe him as pimpin', he's not the guy for me.

1.3. he should be someone i can be proud of, and someone who can be proud of me too. this is sort of related to 1.1. all that passion should have direction.

1.4. he should be someone i can talk to. really talk to, share things with. when i talk to him, i should feel like he's really getting what i'm saying.

1.5. he should treat me well. himself and others too.

1.6. he should believe in God. being devout isn't a necessity. belief in a higher Being, God, what have you, makes all the difference in a person's capacity to love, hope, believe, bounce back, be positive about life. (i've been with negative, baby, and it ain't fun.)

marlon and i are delinquent catholics, and we've had some intense arguments about religion, but one of the things i love about our relationship is that we can pray together, and do.

1.7 he should welcome the opportunity to think, reflect, and be disturbed. nakakaloka yung mga taong ayaw mag-isip. although i'm like that too, sometimes -- especially if confronted with shoes and chocolate.

1.8 he should... aaagh, hirap na hirap na akong sumagot. eto na lang.

love me, love my dima. hee hee.

part 2. the sex of the target.

target daw?! straight male, please.

part 3. eight people i'm tagging.

jason, my sister, nette, tatat, reg.... ugh pwedeng five na lang?

By the river Ganges

...i sat down and ate.

paubhaji is a mumbai specialty, a tasty snack of vegetables and spices all smooshed up into a paste and sopped up with warm bread. fortunately, as i found out, you don't have to be in mumbai to enjoy it.

with two uncles, one aunt, one cousin, a family friend and a clunky jeep (there seems to be no other kind in kolkata), a chilly evening tour of the city was capped with several helpings of this delicacy.

we drove to strand road and took a short walk along the banks of the ganges, india's most sacred and longest river (after crossing it twice, via the massive hooghly bridge, earlier in the evening). a section of the riverbanks are dotted with stalls offering snacks, among which paubhaji was my uncles' unanimous choice that i try.

good thing mr. paubhaji was game. :-) he let me step up beside him on his little platform and click away as he splashed a large, round griddle with water. he then ground up a steady stream of nuts, vegetables and spices with a metal spatula, which blurred and flashed as he worked. (uncle gautam named the ingredients for me should i want to try it at home, but i forget them now.)

he topped the mush up with a final dash of fresh-squeezed lemon juice and coriander leaves, before heaping some into a shallow paper dish for me to taste.

the verdict: earthy, spicy, with a burst of warmth from the coriander -- perfect for a chilly evening. i scarfed down the contents of the dish even before the rolls could be set down in front of me. (i was like, "ay. may bread pala. ehehe")

uncle gautam encouraged me and marlon to try making paubhaji at home. after he named all the vegetables in it, marlon was almost sold. "it sounds very healthy!" he said.

uncle gautam nodded. "yes. and then you fry the bread in butter..."

ay. yun na.


--

a shot of the river that i really like.

crossing the ganga (taken from a cab ride with marlon)

Research

the trouble with doing research on the web for this consulting thing is that i'm finding things that i think are really cool, not things that would actually be useful to my client. daymn.

anyway, click here, be patient, and have a slice of italy -- or two, or three, or five.

Me likey

from g.

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain (partially, anyway)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said ‘I love you’ and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watched the sunrise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game (does ateneo vs dlsu basketball count?)
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby’s diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath/shower
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse
41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government’s official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Bench-pressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day (this is, like, the story of my life)
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to "Let’s Get It On" by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theatre
80. Done something you should regret, but don’t regret it
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who’s not supposed to know about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Sword fought for the honor of a woman.
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn’t have
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Lied
97. (the real 97) Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
105. Got flowers for no reason
107. Got so drunk you don’t remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night-stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Moulin Rouge
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
120. Been on a cruise ship
121. Spoken more than one language fluently (i love being filipino)
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congressperson
133. Packed up and moved to another city to just start over
134. …more than once?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion, or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone’s heart
146. Helped an animal give birth
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of 100mph or faster?
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse
158. Had major surgery.
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: take, landing, during
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for his or her actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. Petted a cockroach
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one "important" author whom you missed in school, and read him/ her
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. …and gotten 86'ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself an art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you.
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196. Dyed your hair
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Lost your Best Friend for reasons of death
201: Fallen in love over the internet
202: Sung in a Barbers’ Shop Quartet
203: Eaten a live animal
204: Been able to communicate in a language you barely learnt barely three days earlier.
205: Memorized words from all Disney movies like Aladdin, Lion King etc; furthermore, dialogues from Friends, Smallville and Star Trek
206: Be able to relate to every song that you ever listen.

--

my first stint as a consultant to an actual company officially starts today. it should have started two days ago, but i didn't have the time then.

i'm scared. aieeeee!

Dugsh dugsh crap crap

the flip side of an intellectually stimulating week as a budding creative genius seems to be an exhausting week as a well-pummeled, tossed-about sack of flour. sooooo much legwork, when all i really want to do is my job.

it's friday, i'm about to keel over, and one of my neighbors has been blasting really bad trance music from his cubie since 9 am. i mean, i can take skul bukol, i can take manila sound, hell i even enjoy early madonna. just not this boom-boom-dugsh-dugsh crap. or at least not at nine in the morning.

thankfully, i got wind of more roundabout raves from my boss last night. perfect timing, as i was operating on autopilot and quelling a rising temper. "the technicolor dream team" has a really nice ring to it. someone should bottle it up and sell it to creative people in serious need of stress relief. every little bit helps.

lalo na sa mga oo ng oo sa bagong raket. tsk, tsk.

Brain storm

one of my favorite classes in college was a creativity class i took under supercool jules dacanay (who is a living, breathing jack from will and grace).

it seemed like all we did at the time was have fun and do crazy things that non-comm majors envied, but now that i work in a creative capacity, i'm realizing the full value of the things we did in class.

in one class, we explored the process of generating ideas. jules told us about the 3 B's, where lightning strikes us most often (well, figuratively at least): bedroom, bathroom (yes, on the trono or in the shower), or bus (or at least in transit).

i thought that made a lot of sense. some of the most lucid moments of my life came after a whole lot of muni-muni in europe, during the twelve-, sixteen-, and even twenty-one hour cross-continent bus rides on tweety, the glee club's giant yellow tour bus.

and so it seems fitting that my latest, biggest work-related rush comes from a concept that popped into my head on a late-night jeepney ride home from work. my boss pitched that concept to the mother of all clients this morning. he returned to the office happy and effusive, spouting the words "record-breaking!" (in terms of client approval time), "huling-huli!", and the most important of all... "approved!"

he was positively glowing as he spilled the beans about the clients' reception. nakakatuwa. especially since i had been wondering if my performance has been ok. ang gagaling kasi ng mga tao dito, feeling ko mahirap umangat.

and especially since i found out that (not from him) that he calls me and my partner something really... swell. pero sa akin na lang 'yon. something for me to savor when work gets stressful.

--

also got a rush from a brainstorming session i had with a new partner at work. we spent the weekend stewing in our own ideas, relaxing our minds, and met up for a two-minute brainstorm at my cubie this afternoon.

sobrang natuwa ako kasi i just showed him one line of copy i was toying with and then BAM! as in literally, brain storm, parang tinamaan siya ng kidlat. like... spontaneous combustion. you could almost see the sparks going off in his head. a concept was born within heartbeats, pitched to boss, boss loved it ("ang lakas niyan!"), and just like that, we were officially cookin'.

i'm starting to really, really like my job.

update: i realized that the one line of copy i pitched to my partner came to me while i was taking a shower. the 3 B's rock!

Oh, shoot

there's no way around it. i have to reveal my inner ditz. this is going to be so incredibly stupid considering you guys all knew it and i didn't.

i've had my comment moderation activated since november. and i didn't know it.
gah!!!!!!!!! boba boba boba!

thanks reener. grabe, if we hadn't spent so much time together yesterday, i would never have known. i would have just assumed that hindi na ako bumebenta sa mga nagbabasa ng blog ko. haha. my self-esteem would have started sliding big time. (although that would be a convenient excuse to eat a lot.) by the way thanks too for yesterday. it was fun. we should be paid to spend time with our friends more often.

so, yeah, the comments are going to be unmoderated from here on in. post to your heart's content. :-) i must say, though, it was fun to go through all the comments that have accumulated since late november last year.

i am flattered that the famous splasher has been here! trust marky fans to gravitate where there are pictures of him. i almost joined the "official" egroup, but stopped myself. tama na yung naka-fanatxt ako. haha.

tinggay: glad my pinsan made you de-lurk. i officially welcome you to my blog! :-)

tatat: hindeh! akin siyah! ay syet, hindi pala pwede. sige na nga.

hazel: i don't know if "smells like curry" is a good thing or a bad thing, but barring the thick dust and pollution in the central area, at yung mga obvious na cow poop sa medyo underdeveloped area, i actually liked the smells. miss ko na nga eh. spices, incense, faint bottom notes (bottom notes daw!) na roses or some other flower. but mostly it smells like someone, somewhere, is cooking something really mouthwatering. raaaarrr, nagugutom ako just thinking about it! :-) might be overpowering to some, though.

at yung mga tao, well, malinis sila sa katawan. ewan ko ba kung saan nanggagaling yung mga may amoy. sabi nga ni marlon, we didn't encounter a single person na merong supposed amoy bumbay.

to everyone who commented on my india pics: revisiting india (and my family) was one of the best experiences of my life. happy to share it with all of you.

and to everyone who commented on my kulit client/s: ok na kami. happy na ako. :-)

Rhapsody on an account

so far, the secret to surviving stressful days at work with a smile seems to be having just one account that you really, really like. and this one is it for me. my boss, who previously handled this account, once told me, "ito ang account na talagang mamahalin mo." and so far, he's been right on the money.

it's the account that can actually elicit giggles from me while i view the tapes for the next plug i have to write. it's the account that i don't mind staying late at the office for, even if it's just to bank some (non-urgent) scripts for future use.

it's the account i can write for without having to even see video or a job order form. and thankfully, (unlike my last account), i don't have to wade through at least an hour of video before i can get cracking, thanks to much shorter episodes and snappier pacing.

and, well, i'm starting to love these kids. i really am. even the chaka ones. (fine, i don't love the less-talented ones as much. haha.)

especially this guy. tee hee. -->

he's great on the show (not to mention really cute). i don't work with him directly, but i've met him at least twice and he remembers me, which is nice. he's got this aww-shucks demeanor, which is sweet, and he calls me ate, which is, i think, not so bad considering he could actually call me tita.

he autographed one of the collats we did for the show, and dedicated it to "'te deepa". much ribbing ensued from my male colleagues, like ian ("ano yan, 'aunte deepa'?"), charlie ("ate, ate, 'wag po ate!") and jorge ("deepa, isa kang YUMMY. young urban matrona!").

che. basta, cute siya.

some of "my" kiddies

I met someone

just last night.

and it looks like he and i are going to spend oodles of time together in the next couple of months. long days, late nights... maybe even a couple of overnights.

he's going to make my life verrrry interesting.

I guess so

i'm pretty broody right new (see previous post), and i have to spend lots of time thinking (it comes with the job). so i guess, yeah, this fits.

Dream, the third of The Endless,

you are in charge of the Dreaming, all imagination and creativity,

everyone knows your beautiful realm, but none truly understand it.

You are dark and brooding, creative,

and spend a lot of time by yourself, just thinking.

You are almost as serious as Destiny, but not quite.

Everyone is enchanted by you, but you keep them all

at a distance, even when you shouldn't.

some enterprising pinoy pop culture geek should create a mulawin-type quiz, where you find out what bird you would be if you were a mulawin. marlon says i would be a hybrid with the eyes of an owl, the face of tweety bird, the down of a chick, the body of a pigeon, and the flying power of a chicken. (he added the voice of a nightingale when i started to throw a fit.)

To do or not to do

like rina, i love making "to do" lists. i have monthly, weekly and sometimes even several-times-daily "to do" lists. i have yearly and lifetime "to do" lists.

during the summer before my senior year in high school, i even made a four-year "to do list"-slash-plan for my life. it had things like "design the fair t-shirt" (1999), "join the ateneo glee club" (1999) and "forget *ex* if still not committed" (haha! 2000), all of which i got to do. it also had things like "learn to drive" (1999) and "pull at least 3 As per sem" (2000), which i didn't.

looking back, it wasn't so much the doing as the imagining and the direction-setting that was important. writing that list made me feel like i was going somewhere. while i might have just inadvertently accomplished some of the things on the list (for example, forgetting the ex was preceded by my being dumped, which i had most certainly not intended), looking back at it gave me a sense of accomplishment, a sense that i was indeed making my own way in this world -- my own, and nobody else's.

so it really bothers me that i haven't made a "to do" list for 2006, like rina has. i haven't made it because i can't bring myself to do it -- i don't know what to put in it. and that's because the thing that i feared would happen when i started this job has, indeed, happened.

which is -- i'm confused. really, really confused. i don't know what to do. i don't know what to do with the rest of my life, which believe it or not directly affects what i'm going to do this weekend, or next week, or the week after.

i knew i was going to face some pretty big decisions this year. but i didn't know facing them was going to be this hard.

wish me luck.

ps- this doesn't end my string of india posts. i'll get back to them. just needed to get this out of my system.

The bangketas of Bengal

these, my friends, are pictures of me in heaven hard at work glassy-eyed scaring marlon in the process of amassing 9 pairs of sandals, roughly 40 bangles, about 15 pairs of earrings, 2 pure silk sarees, 2 saree petticoats/skirts, 3 saree blouses, 1 salwar (dress-pants-dupatta set), 3 necklaces, 6 hair clips, 2 dresses, 6 tops, 4 bags, 1 shawl, 250g of tea leaves, and 1 ring (to rule them all).

my hoard in its infancy

in case you think i'm a total freak, this inventory already includes christmas presents for people back home, plus a few presents i received in india.

oh gawd, what am i saying? i'm a shopaholic who went mad, mad, mad! kasi naman e. kapag ganito ang mga nakita mo sa bangketa, how can you resist?

dibidi dibidi? i think not

gariahat market was my first foray into the wonderland of indian shopping. gariahat is kind of like divisoria, except there are no mass-produced, cheap-ass chinese goods and everyone is really, really good at deflecting bargains. but that's okay, since the prices are so fabulously reasonable (for such unique items) that eventually you feel guilty for even trying to bargain.

muniya, tita nupur, auntie kohlani and uncle sujit took me to buy a saree on my very first day. what i took to be one saree turned out to be two, complete with matching blouses, petticoats, an armful of churi (bangles), bindi (forehead decorations), sandals, earrings and necklaces. whew.

uncle sujit absolutely refused to let me pay for anything. i puffed my thanks after him as we wove through the crowded sidewalks of gariahat. "it is my moral duty," he replied, smiling. i was like, omg this is wild! i've discovered relatives who think it's their moral duty to take me shopping!

it created an interesting dilemma. my eyes were popping out of their sockets at all the great stuff i wanted to buy, but i was deathly afraid of showing interest in anything because i knew my aunt and uncle would snap it up and buy it for me. so i decided to postpone shopping until i was relative-free.

which was at new market, in central kolkata. but i'll save that for another day.

Alin, alin, alin ang naiba?

isiping mabuti
isipin kung alin
isipin kung alin
ang naiba!

i guess they really have this thing about not smiling.
but trust me, they're all very warm, happy, effusive people. bengalis are more like filipinos than i ever imagined.
christmas day with more cousins -- my dad's (uncle avijit, in the blue striped polo, and tita tupur, in the red sari) and my own (tita tupur's daughters and uncle avijit's son, nony, in the peach turtleneck).
trekking to tita tupur's house made me realize what a huge, huge, HUGE city kolkata is. parang ang layo-layo na namin, may mga baka nang gumagala-gala sa kalsada, tapos kolkata pa rin? naknampucha.
i brought marlon with me, and they were absolutely delighted him because a) he looks indian, and b) he shoveled down at least three helpings of all the food they plunked down on the table (not very hard to do -- it was all great.) he hit it off very well with nony, too, when they got to talking about kung fu and WWF. boys -- they're the same the world over. *sigh*

The cricket connection

i have an uncle who's the head of a high school p.e. department. and i have a cousin who plays cricket for india. and they're both pauls! so that's where the sports gene went! 'cause it definitely ain't here. right ate?

from a not-so-recent magazine article about my cousin's *ehem* athletic prowess

uncle sujit's family was half the reason why my arrival in kolkata was happy, rip-roaring chaos. three of them (minus subho) plus three people from my family (minus dima) went to pick me up and carted me off to santoshpur in a clunky jeep, talking a mile a minute in bengali. it was a bit like being on tour with the glee club except mag-isa lang ako!

at some point during that rollicking ride, a phone got pressed to my ear (presumably for me to speak into. when i asked who was on the phone, the reply was: "your brother!"

eh? ang alam ko kaming dalawa lang ni ate a. i was so disoriented. it was crazy. fun, but crazy. it turns out that in bengal, cousins are considered siblings. that was when i "met" subho, my closest male cousin (his dad, uncle sujit, is my dad's first cousin) and the one closest to my age (he's 22).

anyway, subho was off playing cricket in australia, scheduled to fly home that weekend. "i'll take you for a ride around calcutta, sister," he said cheerily. "i should be calling you sister, huh?"

"um. okay. i guess" was my feeble response. god, i was so out of it, i could've unknowingly agreed to an afternoon of torturing newborn bunny rabbits.

subho ended up not arriving due to some change or other in his cricket tourney. which was a real shame. i would've liked to meet him. kasi putang ina, ang guwapo pala niya.

itatagalog ko kasi nababasa 'to ng pinsan kong buo. pero pucha. nagpakita sa aking ng letrato niya ang kanyang ina. mga letrato na nakapambahay siya at walang pantaas. nanghina talaga ako.

kinunan ko ng letrato ang kanyang mga letrato, pwera yung mga halos hubad siya siyempre. sasampalin ako ng aking tiyahin kung ganun. kaya eto lang ang maipapakita ko.

pero pucha talaga. may kamag-anak pala akong laglag-panti. siya na yata ang pinaka-guwapong taga-roon na nakita ko sa aking tanambuhay. natuwa naman ako at nanggaling ako sa lahi ng mga magaganda't guwapo.

that aside, though, subho is quite obviously their pride and joy, what with the national obsession with cricket. uncle sujit coaches a cricket team, and even priyanka (mile-long legs, soft voice, mischievous smile) used to play cricket. over dinner at their flat, uncle sujit proudly carted out a fat file of certificates, awards and articles with headlines like "subhojit leads bengal to victory" and "subhojit shines". out of family's giant closet came the gold medal subho once received as the telegraph's sportsman of the year.

flashback to years of trying to weasel my way out of high school p.e. haaay.

Finding family

omg! i am a real estate developer!

finding my last name splashed in various corners of kolkata absolutely delighted me. i don't think i'm related to every single paul of "paul's hardware", "paul jewellers", "paul electronic supply" (and many more) fame, but the fact that there are so many of them -- of us -- is kind of overwhelming and wonderful and strange after living with just the three of us pauls -- me, my mom and my sister, a lonely little band of pauls -- all my life.

seeing your family name on a couple of dozen storefronts wouldn't be as thrilling i guess if you were a cruz or a reyes or a santos living in the philippines, but try being a paul in the philippines and you'll get the tingle i did.

so. it's time to meet the pauls.

tita nupur is the younger, and only sister of my dad. she's in her late forties, i guess, and never really said much when i was a kid, mostly because she doesn't speak a whole lot of english. my most vivid memories of her were her absolutely loving the kikay stuff we would bring from manila, and painting her toenails cherry red in bed. you could say i got my, er, languid gene from her.

tita nupur insisted on being the one to go inside the airport to come get me. she could barely speak when she saw me, but i received the warmest hug and the tightest squeeze on my arm. and she taught me how to wear a sari (hers are like, impeccably neat and prim), which i promptly, embarrassingly forgot.

uncle gautam is tita nupur's husband. for the life of me, i can't figure out why i call him "uncle" (english) and his wife "tita" (tagalog). i have absolutely zero memories of him speaking. so it was shocking to discover that he's actually so... madaldal.

he also looks really stern in the old pictures we have of him at home, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that he is actually very jolly.

game na game siya for me to try everything. thanks to him, i've tried every form of transport kolkata has to offer.

uncle gautam also makes our family's morning tea. :)

and this is muniya, my one and only first cousin. she's taken over the letter-writing duties from my grandmother, who i'd been corresponding with ever since i learned how to write. to her, i'm deepa didi (sister). she's seventeen and wants to become a doctor. tuwang-tuwa ako sa kanya. smart, matanong, mabait na bata, tahimik, poised pero full of spunk (watch her shush my grandmother in full reklamo mode).

she's got pretty reddish-brown hair which she wants to swap for my boring black-brown (why???). she enjoys long showers (the luxuries of being an only child!) and sings in the bathroom. haha! (plus, she reads this blog. hi muniya!)

dima is probably the most formidable old lady i'll ever know. i was kind of worried that i'd arrive in india to find her weak, sickly and uugod-ugod, no longer the ramrod-straight iron grandma i remember. her last few letters and phone calls were all "i can't walk" and "i can't write" and "i'm very weak" etc etc. i was elated to find out that she's just... well, ma-drama.

she takes two half-hour walks (one at the crack of dawn and one at sunset), walks from her house to uncle gautam's flat and goes up and down four flights of stairs daily. and she insists that she can't walk. hell, she probably walks more than i do. as you can see from her pic, she's still limber enough to swing her legs up on the bed and hug her knees, which her usual posture for chilling out.

marlon was thoroughly impressed. dima met him and gave him the third degree, which was fun. after overhearing their whole exchange, i'm inclined to believe you haven't gotten the third degree until you've gotten it from an indian grandmother.

dima's very single-minded. and at this point in time, she's all about marriage.

dima: how many brothers you have?
marlon: two brothers, one sister.
dima: older?
marlon: all older.
dima: and how many of them are married?
marlon: um. none.
dima: not married?!
marlon: not married.

dima smacks her lips, thinking.

dima: but how will you get married?
me: (quickly) it's ok, dima, we don't have any restrictions like that in the philippines.
dima: no restrictions?
me: no restrictions.
dima: oh. ok. good.

and this is dadu. he passed away a couple of years ago. of all my indian relatives, he was always the most enigmatic to me. he could usually be found sitting cross-legged by himself, observant, quiet. i've always found his name very beautiful. it's amarendra.

dadu had one brother, a younger one, whom he was very close to. they were so close that their children grew up as one set of siblings, of which my dad was the eldest.

among other things, dadu was a freedom fighter, which means his widow (dima) now gets to enjoy free utilities and a modest pension. (heck, she can even get unlimited broadband internet if she wants to.) his brother was a freedom fighter too.

so now you've met my family.

yes, i'm the only one who smiles

next up: the cricket connection!

I'm back!

i’m back from india. i’ve been back from over a week now, and i still can’t believe that this time last week, i was in india with marlon. things went by really fast, and the whole idea of being in india for christmas was kind of surreal, but that doesn’t diminish what was one of the most – or the most? – special and unforgettable christmases of my life.

i’ve been getting back into the rhythm of work after being in starstruck withdrawal for a week, a victim of my own plugs (“who will be sent home this sunday? and what is the surprise announcement that will leave the survivors shocked?”). i’ve also been spending time with marlon – he flew home with me from kolkata, and is spending quite a long vacation here.

slowly getting reorganized at home, distributing goodie bags to my family and packing away my treasure trove of indian buys. this weekend, i’ve mostly been getting hooked on lost. and (the most arduous but immensely entertaining task of all), i’ve been organizing the 300+ photos i took during the trip.

pictures i took with this baby.

as if the india trip wasn’t a big enough christmas present in itself, marlon decided to totally spoil me rotten with this wonderful new gadget to document the whole trip. and so far (one memory card error notwithstanding), i love it to bits. damn thing’s got tons of features packed into it, for what i understand was the price of a lesser endowed canon or sony.

aside from the anti-shake dsp, what’s really earning my undying love is the best shot feature, which automatically sets your camera (shutter speed, exposure, and all those other things that i don’t get—yet) to take the best shots in about twenty different conditions other than your basic snapshot, scenery and night modes. it’s got modes like candlelight, splashing water, text and sports (not that i play any). it’s so totally for dummies. i love it. "average" my a**.

okay. now on with the show and tell.