Marriage... the why

Ah... this was a topic I had outlined back in December 2010. With one of my closest cousin getting married in exactly 2 weeks, I thought it was absolutely essential to talk about the forbidden topic of Marriage/Shaadi/Lifetime-of-Hell/ whatever you wanna call it.

I'll start with a quick over view of why marriage seems as though it's so much more important in our culture than any other -- it's basically the foundation of our parents being. It's a sad realisation, but our parents will never feel as though they can retire until their children (more importantly daughters) are married. In turn forcing us to get married so our parents can be truly happy.

Now at the age of 23... I've actually started to notice my parents trying to "clean me up", what use to be fun cooking lessons are now a test to see if I'll be able to please a future mother in law. Cleaning your house is no longer a chore, but  now a drill. The worst part? From 17-22 it was all fair game to hit up any ole club/party/parking lot any time, any day... now? My phone (fine my cousins' phone too) gets blown up by my Mother and Father if I'm not home by 9:30. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my parents... until my mother dropped the "Finish your degree, lose weight, learn how to make a perfectly round roti, we need to start looking for you" line.

FML. My poor parents, I tried to kindly explain to her that marriage is no where in my near future. She had a difficult time understanding this. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a wedding, and gifts, and jewelry and double income, and a vacation home -- but a marriage? Please, no thanks.

So.. with two very typical, very conservative desi parents, and one bad ass daughter, what's my solution? *clears throat* MBA. Law School. Yes, that's the only viable solution. Take the academic route, "School is too important to get married, I'll get married later, bla bla, bla". We'll see how far this takes me - who knows, this could always end with me inviting you to my big fat desi wedding in India next year to some "doctor".

Stay tuned, I have about a 100 other perspectives about marriage to share; from failed institution, arranged marriages, to why I'll have a wedding.

So, what are your thoughts on marriage? Go on, don't be shy, share.

ps. You ever notice how a desi bride is NEVER happy on her wedding day?! mmhmm.

Rotis for Dad

I use to be the type who'd find recipes, go buy the ingredients and follow them to a T -- when I was 12. Over the years I've discovered my love for food and preparing dishes for others. Over the past week I've been working on lots of things, amongst one of them is cooking and experimenting more. Have  you noticed the shift to healthy foods at the grocery stores? It's never been easier than now to swap ingredients for a healthier and more nutritious alternative. Some of my favourite dishes over the past week were made with yams, quinoa, chipotle peppers, avocados, and salmon. 

Regardless of whatever I can whip-up on my own, I fail  at making the perfect round rotis. As a Desi girl, I feel as though this is a bare minimum skill that I must acquire. So how will our generations of females make the perfect rotis? We weren't raised in front of open fires, or tasked with the job of making rotis for the whole fam- just the occasional request here and there. Will we learn in the months prior to getting married? Will we ever be able to whip out 10 rotis in 5 mins? Will our mother-in-laws just make it? Will traditional Desi cooking eventually become obsolete? Will I be able to pick up 10 rotis through a drive through? Or even better... will there be a roti maker by KitchenAid soon? 

So, am I the only one who can't make the  perfect circular roti? Are there other mid 20s females who can't? Or even better, does it even matter nowadays? 

O yeah - I've tried learning at the Gurdwara, but I don't stand a chance against the Bibi with a rolling pin. 

(I did succeed this morning! I had the perfect blown  up rotis -- but then again I only needed to make 3)

... Waiting for 2011

This was meant to be a quick blog post to simply announce "Coming Soon", but once I added in the title it made me reflect on 2010 - and since I have no blog posts from this year - I figured I might as well leave something behind.

2010 has definitely been a year of discovery - but can't we say that for each year? The one thing I've discovered this past year is my ability to work hard. I've worked hard this year, but not hard enough - and that's why I'm looking forward to 2011 - to push myself even harder.

So here's a quick recap of 2010:

Highlights

• New Job
• Dominican Trip
• Jashan Bhangra event 
• Camping in Radium
• Summer of idiocity
• 5K Run 
• One too many drunken nights
• Countless 87C meetings
• Vegas

Lowlights

• pfffffft we don't mention those 

Ah... after writing my highlights it doesn't seem like it was a very exciting year at all - o well, all the more to look forward to in 2011. 

ps. looking for an awesome blog template - I'm welcome to recommendations