Return of the sinner

Last time I had gone to Bhubaneswar, I met this. I never got to savor the usual tastes, sights and sounds of my home town which I love so much.

This time the day K left for his overseas assignment, I left the day following to my parents place. (Yea I am a bit of an escapist and a procrastinator. I wanted to escape the immediate vacuum of K not being there, and fill it up with my family people. And I wanted to postpone the facet of missing him for a couple of weeks at least. My manager God bless that dear soul, was graceful enough, to agree that I work from Bhubaneswar for 2 weeks).

This time, the transit was very different. I was having mixed emotions over leaving for my parents home on one hand and feeling the absence of K. And since he was also in transit at that time, I did not have to send the usual messages to him of having reached the airport, having boarded the flight and reached safely. But the moment I reached Bhubaneswar, the warmth I felt was enormous, enough to make me be in a trance. As soon as I reached home, there was moms amazingly tasty chicken curry! It just enhanced the trance I was experiencing. (Am I sounding like Mr. Nityananda. Please excuse the very poor joke I tried there :D ) Inspite of the lunch in the flight, I could not resist having one big helping of the curry with rice and dal. Little did I know, that was the start of my favourite sin - YES - Gluttony!

I broke all barriers and ate, ate and ATE! Not just that day, for the 16 and a half days that followed. The next day was a trip to my grandmama's house. Now she too is a cook par excellence. But the pulao and soya chunks curry she had made that day, were extra delicious. My aunt, uncle and their kids had also come over, and she had brought her special sweetdishes too. The table groaned under the weight of the loaded dishes, and I groaned after having stuffed myself like a Thanksgiving turkey. During lunch, since we cousins were pulling the leg of one whos allegedly in "love" (:S Kids are falling in love at a younger age now I feel :S ) I ended up not realising when the food reached the level of my nose. Now to wash it off, I had to recourse to a full glass of coke (which implies some more calories ).

The days that followed saw me gorging on fish curry(after 8 months I think), mutton curry and yes the ultimate prawns! I never got a chance to feel one basic human need - hunger. There was always some or the other dish, savouries and sweet meats available in easy access. One day my aunty assuming, that I would be sad and sulky and missing K too much decided to pep me up. To do so, she cooked dahi vadas, chole,aloo dum,pani puri and Gajar ka halwa and made her son home deliver the same. I ate till I needed assistance getting up from the chair. Trust me, I am not exaggerating. On the 26th of Feb, came the wedding anniversary of my parents, and what better way to celebrate than to Feast. Feast we did on Hyderabadi cuisine.... you get the drift? I would prefer not explaining what happens when people who love food meet Hyderabadi food.

Yes I was gluttonous, but I was not unabashed all the way. Come on K would return one day and I did not want him to see a killer whale having replaced his human though chubby wife. So I decided to step on the stepper. And just like I crossed all limits in eating, that day I did cross the limits trying to burn all the blubber that had accumulated over the course of 6 days. I exercised for some 30 odd minutes at a vigorous pace. The next day, I had such cramps in my calf muscles!! I could not stand straight when I woke..... my skin was blue, there were internal clots. I sprayed a decent amount of Volini and wrapped the darn legs in crepe bandages. It took 3 working days for me to be on my feet fully. In the midst though, I did not miss the pastries or the choco pie or the doughnuts sis brought home to make her injured sibling feel better. See God does nt want me to loose my corpulent self :|

Once I was able to perform my vertical operations perfectly, I resorted to mild exercises. But they were toooo mild to combat the loading rate of chaats, pani puris and veg rolls from the street. I absolutely gorged on street food with a vengeance. I was literally thinking "you @$!@$!% guys tantalised me when I was recovering from Typhoid, now its my turn to decimate you all. I am going to eat you all mwahahahaha". I would be failing in my duty, if I do not mention the tubs of ice cream and soft drinks I devoured. Summers coming in you see :|

I am not a foodie. I know it is difficult to believe this after what I have just written. But honestly, I am not too much into food. I do not give a lot of importance to food. I am very adaptive when it comes to food, have no complains as to the quality or quantity of the same. Food is not something which comes first to my mind. But I am a sinner - am a greedy, gluttonous person, who does not know when to say no when it comes to delicious food :(