Raaga has tagged me for the Fantastic Four MEME. So here goes some random facts about me in “fours”:
4 Places I’ve lived:
- Chennai
- Mumbai
- Bangalore
- Delhi
As you can see I have been bred in urban India.
4 Jobs I’ve had:
Four Jobs???!!!
I have had only one going by the technical definition of a “job” before being bitten up the startup bug (as they say in the software circles). I am listing work that I have done in the past and loved the most:
- Summer Camp Coordinator
- Volunteer with Sarbani’s Weekend Social Sessions for Children with Autism
- My two Internships during my Masters one with Concerned for Working Children and the other with Azim Premji Foundation. Amongst many interesting things I will always cherish these two for:
- All the trudging across a few dozen villages spread across Karnataka – some of the Tandas would be accessible only by foot
- All the Jolada Rottis I have had and the zillion conversations I have had with wonderful people who seek a contented heart
- The irrepressible spirit of working children and their trade union
- The many cups of tea flavoured sugar syrup I have gulped in the name of “chaya”
- All the endless search for villages traveling in Jeeps, Lorries and Bullock Carts
And of course for all the search for a decent “private enough” place to relieve myself
- Coordinator – Resource Center, The Banyan
Amma and I had a blast conducting a two month summer camp for 100 children from age 5 to 15 at the BHEL Officer’s Club. At the end of it we had a massive exhibition of paintings and handicrafts and a three hour long cultural with dance, drama and music.
Sarbani is one of the few people to have influenced my perspectives I learnt how to engage with children by observing her. Each weekend during the third year of my degree in psychology would be spent volunteering at her weekend social skills and integration session that would be a massive amount of fun – from playing all day long in sand pits to making a wall sized collaborative painting.
The Banyan is the first and the only NGO I worked for. This is the only “JOB” that I have had. The Banyan transforms the lives of women with mental illness once homeless and invisible. More than 2000 people in the past decade have traced back their steps into a life, some by reuniting with their families all over India and some by taking up employment.The best thing I cherish about this job was the fact that it involved a whole lot of travel to places as diverse a Vellore and Guwahati. I had the opportunity to meet fantastic individuals who do so much to empower people. One of them was Krishnan at Akshaya Trust.
4 Favorite places I’ve holidayed:
- Danolti
- Bharathpur
- Church on Belur-Halebid trip
- Badami
We drove on a road that wasn’t a road and had no parapet – so getting there was an adventure in itself. I have had the best tasting spring rolls ever at the small hotel where we stayed. In the early 90’s Danolti was still a fairly remote place. We were literally the only tourists around – we trekked a few kilometers every day, ate and slept.
My brother is a bird fanatic – he can’t get enough of birds. We’ve drove down to Bharathpur religiously each migration season during the six years that we stayed in Delhi.
The Belur-Halebid trip by itself was phenomenal, we also went to very remote places that don’t find a spot on tourist maps. My best memory is of boating around this submerged church on the way to Hassan.
I went to Badami when I was five and my dad made me solve a dozen puzzles that the artists had left on these Cave temples. The magnificence of the sculpture at Badami is burned in my memory like no other. You must head to Arun’s blog to read more on Badami.
4 Favorite foods:
There used to be a time when I was quite taken in by food that looked and sounded exotic, but here’s what I consider heaven right now
- Idli with Mulaga Podi – IMHO, People who dont like Idlis dont know how to make Idlis or haven’t had Idlis that are qualified to be called Idlis.
- Rasam – We’ve posted tons of Rasam recipes – a few of my favourites are here, here and here.
- Vethal Kozhambu with Groundnuts and Small Onions – Small Onions don’t taste this good in any other dish.
- Roasted Nuts or Snacks made out of Nuts / Chocolate Brownie (for which I have been fortunate to discover a low fat version) – I refuse to choose one among these two.
I have stronger opinions about what I don’t like – Semiya payasam tops this list and there isn’t anything like a good semiya payasam.
4 Places I’d rather be:
No answers – I love being where I am, doing what I do and the way I do it.
Update: Since my amma’s pestering me with sad smileys, I’ll add MY AMMA’s PLACE in Bangalore to this list. In fact I love going there, perfect holiday – according to Satish I keep eating all the time when we go to Bangalore.
Hi Lakshmi
Its really grt to know abt ur
summercamps,social services and all.
From Srivallis blog i came to know u r
a good painter.I too do fabric painting.
Why dont u post ur painting pics.Very eager
to see ur paintings
Nandhita, I haven’t picked the brush in a long time :D. Most of my paintings have been gifted – a few are with Amma.
Wow, that is quite an impressive resume Lakshmi! Nice meme…
Nice to know more about you. Glad that you gave us a glimpse of your life. Idlli milagai podi is my fav too.
lakshmi
wow…Nice knowing things abt u……The voluntary activities u were involved in are very noteworthy……Nice knowing u 🙂
Well I don’t know if one can call it “voluntary” Sirisha – I was paid a salary at The Banyan and a stipend during my internships.
Wow Lakshmi, you amaze me. Lovely Meme and good to know a bit more about you.
So young and so many charities you have worked.Good for you.I am going to adopt you!!;D
Only volunteering Trisha does is in the Regional hospital here. She is obsessed with medical field!:))
Great to read it. I have to do this MeMe but I don’t have any intesersting things to list! Will see!:D
Improved my recipe Index today, see if it helps.
Sure sure adopt me, I’ll happily devour all that you bake 🙂 . YOU dont have interesting things to say?!!!! C’mon who are you kidding? 😀
Will check recipe index. I still think Google is the king of search, I am addicted to searching like “search string” site:http://xxx.com :).
your fantastic four is truly FANTASTIC!
Looks like you have lived in the fours corners of the country :-))
Interesting to read about your work experiences, particularly the Banyan. Do you still work there? Wishing you the best in the things you do.
and thanks for the plug to Badami! What a exquisite heritage we have – and we need to share more of it!
🙂
Its quite an adventurous post Lakshmi.. u happen to visit quite a number of places gurl.. glad to know more about u da..:))
Interesting me-me!
Lakshmi,
Vanaspati and dalda are wonderful alternatives to ghee and butter. I guess most of the bakeries and sweet shops in India use only vanaspati and dalda.
Only reputed sweet stalls like arya bhavan and some others, which are pretty expensive, make their sweets with loads of ghee and butter.
Lakshmi, your amma just told me you blog is hitting 1 Lakh hits in your blog shortly!! WHOA!!!
CONGRATULATIONS to both of you!!! Enjoy the success. The yum blog is really YUM!!:))
I will check that google search and see if it helps me too.Some blogs list only monthly index. If I don’t know which month that recipe is in, I will be spending half day searching for it!:D
Interesting Meme..Good to know more about u!!
Lakshmi, Nice to know you through your blog, a very impressive list of jobs you held,must be very rewarding at a emotional level.
I would love to go to Bharatpur to have heard quite a bit from my friend who is a wild life photographer
my my lakshmi..that is pretty impressive…love the volunteer work you have done!
wow very interesting to know you lakshmi!so many achivements that very a good profile!
Thats quite a interesting MEME. Good to know you a little more.
That was a nice read…happy to know such things about you
That was good to read lakshmi. As I told amma, you are one with too many things ! And Congrats on your 1 lac hits. Its good to know that!..you ladies really rock!
Thanks for tagging me…I may not be able to come up with such an interesting .:)
I enjoyed reading it too. I love your site and see that it will be a great resource for me. I love rasam too – one of my favourite foods.
Thanks for visiting my site – I hope that you enjoyed it. You were at the top of the list for a reason!
Lakshmi, Sorry for this late reaction. Thx for tagging me… Now I have to find some more random facts. I thought I gave it all in the last meme i did. Neways, let me scratch my head..:). thx again.
lakshmi nice to know more about you .i salute you for all the charitable work u are doing and congrats on hitting a lakh
Hi there. I have to say that my mother’s semiya payasam (well we call it seviya but I think it’s the same thing) is absolutely delicious (mainly because it doesn’t have those creamy skin-like bits in it).
Also was curious to know if you are a practising therapist/counselor as I work on the child abuse issue and am keen to get in touch with as many sensitive mental health professionals as I can .. do visit my website and get back to me on this if you can.
Thanks, Nazu.
i have fainted. you did a meme, lax!! wow!! are u sure, u r ok??!:P 😛 😛
btw, we need to explain to sera what a meme is!! need to do that b4 i do this meme and tag her.:D
Nice to know more about you lakshmi.
LOL – Place I’d rather be – Mom’ place. Enjoyed reading it.
And Vathal kuzhumbu is my all time favourite too.
[…] Y who also blogs, so this is open to anybody is willing to play along.A – ArchanaFantastic Four MEMELakshmi tagged me for the Fantastic Four MEME. So here I go on some random facts about me in “fours”:4 […]