Thin line

Amusing experiences at the gym continue. (oh and 'why I joined a gym' story sometime later! going to be very long-winded). On my workout appointment with the trainer he literally said 'what abs will you do. There is nothing.' Of course I agreed. There is 'literally' no extra fat. So I am thin. #eureka. Thanks to good genes, bad genes, a mix of both or simply past life karma as the herbivore dinosaur. 

Daily I encounter stares, looks, eye rolls, hinting (indicating) 'what are you even doing here?' Umm like trying to be fitter and lead a healthier life ? Daily I observe female counterparts taking 5-10 minutes in front of the mirror, to eventually get out of the dressing/changing room. Then I go back to growing up years when looking at oneself in the mirror for a very long time was told to be a vanity issue. Hence to be avoided. Thanks to that or whatever else like pile up of studies, other teenage worries, friends, admissions, mills and boons, that habit never came my way. And unknowingly I do not seem to have body image issues. I am not sure if I should be proud for having saved some amount of time in our stupid existence. May be will save the smug admission for later ?

The world has tried very hard though to give me some issues. Must tell you so. Like every familiar face concern-trolling me like it would mean them the world if I put on weight. Every guy who has even slight interest in me, telling me how thin I look. Like I am going to die on him or something out in the public. Getting fatter (who weigh more than me) people to tell me how they wished they had my body or could transplant some of their weight to me. First things first, fat transplant operations don't have any guarantees, dear stranger! Working without fact-checks, I will never understand.
The world in such innumerable ways never seems to stop. The noise needs to be diverted elsewhere. Ignore, tell them on their face they are jealous, ignore, run more, be even more fitter, ignore #routine. Or write a blog. Publish it on the internet. Seem petty.

May be parents need to be more sensitive. Friends and boy/girl-friends need to be not assholes. And gym trainers need to evaluate why they are sitting in that seat. I am not even going to point out. #justsaying

comfort food

I know if I tell you aloo paratha (roti stuffed with spiced mashed potatoes) is one of my comfort foods, after kadhi-khichadi, you will roll your eyes at me. But it is. Because I can conjure up those in less than 30 minutes. Ok more than that depending on how many potatoes are getting boiled. But as a grad student I got into the habit of keeping 2 or more boiled potatoes in the refrigerator. No wonder I find it my comforting food.

So today the only different thing I did was making the dough. I had some old paneer which was not going to get used in any other preparation or eventually see the waste basket. I grated that into the flour. Added some  ajwain (carom seeds) and til (sesame seeds) and salt. The dough came out very soft and smooth. 
(Aai uses a tea spoon of malai (milk fat?) while making such doughs.)

Instragrammed!

My potato stuffing was very minimal. A mix of green pepper, very thinly cut onion, coriander (cilantro) leaves, a pinch of turmeric (haldi), red pepper (laal mirch) powder, salt, a tea spoon of lemon juice and grated ginger. Yes grated ginger! Learnt it from the previous maid. If used just a pinch adds a very good flavor without overpowering.

The end product looked like this ->