Infinite thoughts

As the lockdown is continued, the domestic help is not available and we are our own to prepare the daily food. Although the restaurants are allowed to serve delivery orders, I have decided not to indulge for some more time. This gives rise to the discussion about "what is it for tomorrow's meal?" - which is very common, even otherwise. However, now that we are not ordering from restaurants, we are tempted to try out different cuisines (that's common now-a-days). During one such discussion, Italian cuisine popped up. We have tried our hands on preparing Pizza (using readymade base) and it worked out pretty well. Next one is Pasta, which is an easy affair, but it hasn't seen the light of the day as yet. While discussing all this, suddenly a question popped up.. "What do Italians eat routinely?" Do they eat Pizza and Pasta as daily meals or there are other items which are far more common that Pizza and Pasta? If you have been to Italian restaurant, you woul...

My curious fella once asked - "Baba, why is a country referred to as 'she' or 'her'?" e.g. Her Flag etc. I didn't have an immediate answer. I somewhat knew why would it be, but I couldn't put it in a logical convincing manner. I realised, I needed to look up some references.  My thinking was on following lines. The word "mother" instantaneously gives reference to "birth", "care". Since one takes birth in a given land, it is easy to relate it to be "motherland". It invokes the emotions similar to visiting your mother when you come back to your native place. So the feminine reference is largely on an emotional basis rather than any grammatical one. My research started indicating that although majority of the references are feminine, there's no basis for that in english grammar. English language is gender neutral and has no feminine and masculine distinction between words. However Latin, from which English is or...

Since the lockdown got announced again yesterday, there is unrest and uncomfortable feeling amongst the people around. First of all, I sense utter distrust that this lockdown is not going to be useful. If the administration couldn't set up required health infrastructure in last 100 days, how would they improve it in next 10 days? On what basis, did the government announce "unlockdown 1" and all? Many people had just started with their business and again this lockdown.  One thing is clear to me. Lockdown or no lockdown. Social distancing is required. Wearing masks is a must. Do not let your guard down. And while taking care of your physical health, you also need to take care of your mental needs. Especially of the little ones in your house. Mrunmay has been waiting to meet his grandparents for over three months now and was anxious to meet them in next few days hoping there would be further relaxations. They are in same city, but still we couldn't meet him. The thought ...

So, it is announced now . The number of cases in and around Pune were increasing continuously. Thanks to all the free flow on the streets. People giving up their precautions and pretending that the pandemic is over. When everyone should have resorted to essentials only, people were finding it brave to step out. On a personal level, I have stepped out only for necessary thing - once every week - typically for vegetables and other perishable items such as curd. As a family, we stepped out for couple of important items - a work chair for Meghana, few utensils in the kitchen and some art material. First two items had become a priority over last 3 months. Third one was essential to keep ourselves engaged during the lockdown period. However, we ensured that we picked up only essential stuff and left the shop at the earliest.  On the online shopping front, we ventured onto few items, but mostly those were of P1 category, if not P0. However, for all such items, we ensured that the packages...

If you are reading this regularly (?), you would have noticed it. The blog has got a face lift.  It all started when I realised that one of my avid readers is finding it difficult to search posts on a mobile device. He has been reading my posts on his mobile and has read several of my posts. But searching on mobile was a big problem for him. I acknowledged that it was a time to relook at the blog theme. After spending an hour or so, I bumped upon the current theme. I was looking for 2 features primarily. Mobile First Easy access to archives After trying to fix the old theme, I finally gave up and decided to look for a different theme.  This one is giving a fresh look to the blog. The ocean background is absolutely stunning and the white area for blog posts is giving the required contrast. The left navigation is prominent and can be customized to add more widgets in future, if I decide to. When switched to mobile view, the left side bar gets nicely tucked under the menu an...