Living in KL - Part 2 - Food in KL

I hope you got a glimpse of KL through my eyes in my last post. Today, I will continue to talk about my KL experience of the most talked about thing in my life: FOOD :)

In my new adopted hometown, the three adjectives that people most often use to describe me are: Indian, Married, Vegetarian.The first one is obvious living in a foreign land. The second one is alright (although I could do without the tag sometimes  ;P) but the third one is a bit of a surprise.

Now you see, nobody bats an eyelid back home when I say I am a vegetarian. Actually. I never have to say 'I am a vegetarian' coz unless someone specifies their preference to eat meat, it is a foregone conclusion that the whole world is 'shakahaari'. But over here in KL, people make it a point to confirm whether I at least eat fish or egg when I say I am a vegetarian and some go ahead to confirm if garlic is 'ok'. So the word 'vegetarian' in itself doesn't mean much to them.

Living in KL - Part 1 - Moving from Delhi to KL

A year and a half back, I made this huge decision of moving from a city where I had two families to a city where I had none. I moved from Delhi (to keep references simple I would stick to the city 10 minutes away from my actual hometown Faridabad) to KL. I wouldn't say it was easy. A lot of things changed, both on the personal front as well as the professional front.

As promised in my earlier post, I am trying to capture all that happened in this one year of my life. Doing so in one post isn't feasible, so I will split my experiences. Both of these cities happen to be the respective country capitals so comparisons are bound to happen. This post talks about my observations of Delhi vs KL and I will pour out other details of the last one year in the forthcoming posts.

Coming from Delhi, the grandeur of KL didn't really hit me (at first) as I had expected it to. Tall buildings, broad highways, high-end malls felt like - been there, done that!!

Short trip on the long weekend - Melaka :)

Long weekends are the most welcome times of any year. Unlike the festive time holidays, there is no set menu for this meal :) You can go ahead and mix your own ingredients - sleep the weekend off or shop the weekend off or travel on. 

This long weekend, I did all of these :). I could ramble on and on about how much fun the whole weekend was, but that might take a while. For now, I would just write about the most amazing part of this weekend - Road trip from KL to Melaka. It's a short three hours drive, which is pretty much the amount I had to spend driving to and from my office in my hometown.

Yes!! That is a cycle rickshaw and every glitzy thing on it is battery operated!!

The biggest luxury of life !!

No matter how many tantrums I throw to trouble her, the first tear that is shed for even the slightest scratch on my body is my mother's.
No matter how many miles away from home I am, the first person to run to my rescue and bring me home is my father.
No matter how much I fight with her and irritate her, the first person I find support from in times of need is my sister.
No matter how many tantrums and fights I have with him, or how long the distance is, my husband is always 'The Last Train Home' for me.

I live thousands of miles away from home, but that doesn't change any of these things at any time.
It's amazing how families don't grow apart with distance but grow stronger instead.

Why confront something when you can avoid it !!

P.S. The title is not an exclamation by mistake, it is so on purpose!!

What in life is worth a confrontation that will definitely lead to a feisty heated argument?

I have had a lot of situations in life where I had to confront people and call them out for their wrongs.
And trust me, I mean it when I say 'A LOT'. I confronted the people that hurt me and pretended to be right in doing so. I could walk away, but these people were worthy of a fight. You know the kind of fight that you have when you need to hold on to some person for life and you can not just let go. The fight when you don't want the relationship to die because of some stupid misunderstanding or miscommunication or something even sillier than that. But these fights were all in my head. Yes, the fights weren't real.

CWC Team India - Winners - Then and now!!

In World Cup 2015, team India had an outstanding streak right up to the semi finals. Performing continuously, winning all the matches and being cheered by all the fans.

But the support these fans had to offer changed when team India needed it the most. While the team was performing, the entire nation wanted to take credit for the victory. There was an abundance of - It is our team, our countrymen, player from my city et al.

As soon as India lost the first match, there seemed to be no shortage of analysis on the loss - team wasn't well prepared, the other wins were against weaker teams, bowlers don't know how to bowl, batsmen don't perform when it is needed the most, captain didn't distribute the bowling overs wisely and the most disgusting ones to hear - Virat Kohli was busy doing advertisements, he was in a hurry to meet the girlfriend, Anushka Sharma's presence brought bad luck. Are you kidding me ??

The joy of reunion!!

My husband and I have known each other for almost 12 years now. 

We met in college and were the best of friends throughout. Then I landed a job in Mumbai and had to move out. And - we started dating.

That was the start of our long distance relationship, which lasted for about 3 + years. I had a blast in Mumbai but one of the sweetest memories are of the times when he would fly in to meet me. Weeks before his actual visit, all I could do was daydream about the days to come and plan about the things to do. The time would just fly past me and before I realized he would already be on a plane to go back home. The next few weeks would still be dipped in the sweet joy of time spent with him.

Whenever I flew back home, I would start counting back days to my flight. There was lightness in my step and as soon as the plane landed - welcome home echoed in my head :) The joy that reflected on the faces of my family members was priceless. I remember my sister complaining that I got preferential treatment (I was treated quite like the Queen of House). Adding to all this was the joy of meeting my husband (the then boyfriend) again. Between long naps, yummy home cooked food, long chats with family, catching up with old friends and being pampered by the boyfriend, I felt like a celebrity in those days.

Once I moved back to my home town from Mumbai, I got married and settled down with my dear husband. All the anxiety that separation brings along and all the joy that comes with reunions was left behind. Life was good but a little monotonous to be fair. And then I shifted base again to KL an year back. This time I was separated from two families instead of one. So there was double the amount of anxiety. That combined with the fact that my husband wasn't moving with me turned out to be a real bummer. 

I floated back to the time when the two of us were juggling a long distance relationship with full time jobs. Well, if that wasn't enough we also had family expectations to manage this time round. So this time even his visits to KL and my visit back home were all loaded with emotions of the upcoming separation for me - it is tougher to stay apart post marriage :( 

It took us one full year of praying and struggling before he could actually move here. Yes, that's right - one full year. But the day he finally arrived - it was pure bliss. I haven't been happier in this city before. The days are brighter and the evenings are more pleasant. I also realized that I had been living on caffeine, which now, my body no more craves for. It will be an understatement if I say life is easy now. To be aware that I will see him when I wake up in the morning and that he is going to be around every evening when I come back from work is just enough to keep my world going round.

Separation is tough, tougher the second time around but reunions - ecstasy!!