#mga writes

I've been to Kochi recently and what’s fun if you are not trying the local cuisine? So I tried Parota with beef, Iddiyapam, puttu, appam and kappa. As someone who loves trying new foods, watching Malayalam movies has been a gateway to discovering Kerala's delicious and unique cuisine. From up-close shots of people enjoying their meals to pivotal plot points centred around food, these movies have genuinely influenced my taste buds. One particular scene from the movie Hridayam stood out to me. When Arun asks Nitya on a food date, he takes her to an authentic hotel where they enjoy Kerala's famous parotta with beef. Another scene from Vikram Vedha has Vedha instructing Vikram on how to eat the Parotta with beef 101. These scenes highlight the role that food plays in Malayalam movies, and how it can bring people together in different ways. As someone from Andhra, where beef is taboo and even talking about it can be culturally insensitive, I was curious to try it for myself. And...

Meet Subramani, the owner of a tea stall in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dense forest for kilometres on end, there is just a bus stop along the ghat road and this tea stall. One must get down at this bus stop and walk 2 km into the forest to reach nearby villages or resorts. He's like Chellam sir from the Family Man series - if you need information about local transport, accommodation, or anything else, Subramani is your man. You just need to ask and he was like "oru nimasham thambi" and he's on the phone, making things happen in no time. The day I was leaving I found his stall torn to pieces. Locals said an elephant emerged from the jungle and destroyed the tea stall overnight. Locals started to help and I am sure he will rebuild his shop and start again. When asked how he was doing, Subramani simply replied "Ellām cariyāki viṭum thambi" (everything will be fine) with that same infectious smile.

A gift from my parents when I was in the 9th grade, more than a mere object, it holds memories much greater. I remember playing GTA Vice City and Hitman, we all wish we had those cheat codes in life, 'comeflywithme', 'fannymagnet'. I remember the nerves and excitement I felt, awaiting the results of my 10th-grade public exams while staring at its screen. I remember getting awe-struck by looking at photos of Dubai city that my cousin sent in an email. I remember burning DVDs with the photos, it's funny some people reading this might wonder why the hell they burn,lol I will remember today, as it rests in scrap, obsolete and forgotten, its purpose and function now long gone, Yet the memories it holds remain timeless, A treasure trove of moments to look back upon.

Newborns are cute, and we all know that. But what about teenagers? They can be a bit funky and weird, but they're okay. And the ones between 5-13? Oh gosh, these guys can be an absolute nightmare. Let me tell you why. These toddlers are cute, and this statement doesn't hold true every time, it's because they are built that way, they are a duality in nature: they are cute and annoying at the same freaking time. It's like they know how to push all of our buttons and they do it on purpose! If you break down a computer to a molecular level, it essentially works in binary form. At any given time, it can either do 1 or 0, but supercomputers can do both 1 and 0 simultaneously. Likewise, these kids do the cute stuff and are annoying simultaneously. I have a nephew. He is 10 years old and 10 times more annoying than any other kid I know. The only time I feel cute about him is when he goes to bed and slips into sleep like a baby. But for the rest of the day, he's like a screa...

Wrapping your mind around your life is pretty hard but do you know what else is harder, watching a guy next to you enjoying every bite of Bonda with the gatee chutney(I can't find a fancier English name for it) while you are on a f*king diet. I'm at the tiffin centre waiting for my parcel, I am a regular customer here so the bonda shop anna gave me the gatte chutney privilege. Okay, the harder part here is I promised myself to have regular tiffin only twice a week, for the rest of the days I have to resist the urge to have it and just deliver it to my home and I have to survive on this colonized white guy’s diet: bread spread with peanut butter and oats, f**k that protein and fibre respectively. Speaking of gatee chutney, it is hard to find, and even if you do, every Bonda shop anna will treat it as an invaluable asset, so asking for extra chutney is an unwritten rule of crime 101. I still can't comprehend why people choose normal chutney over gatee chutney. Are they going...

The reason I picked this book This is a unique experience: I watched the movie in 2017, read it this week and rewatched the film once I finished the book. So it’s been 5 years since I watched the movie and I only remember two scenes the potato harvest and a nerd guy at NASA figuring out the shortest rendezvous to Mars. I read ‘Project Hail Mery’ by Andy Weir last year, and it's easily the best sci-fi I've ever read. I tuned to it on audible and Ray porter’s narration is the best thing if you are looking to utilize the free credits of Audible. This year I thought I should try Martian.  Martian audible version is about 11 hours and it took me three weeks to finish it, over this time you get to live with this character and walk along with him on the Martian planet, I must appreciate the movie version where we get to see the visual version like the opening scenes; the beautiful aerial shots of Mars and the events leading up to the accident were amazing and Movie vs Book If there is...

It’s the fourth Saturday, yay!!, my rat-racing fat ass finally got some time to write a story. I started to type. Newton’s first law states that a body stays at rest until and unless an external force acts on it, likewise life goes calmer and ordinary in a single direction until love happens, it is a magical external force that could make one’s life extraordinary. “Bro she broke up with me”, my friend interrupted. Damn it, not again, I am just about to write and process a good feel about love and here is my friend standing in front of me with 180 deg flip experience, universe conspiracies with my writing process, I groaned. I closed the laptop lid and turned to him. “Go on, I am all ears”, I sighed. “We were in a 2-year relation and now she says that I am not giving her space and it is not working anymore between us”, he said and started to sob. Poor girl she took this long to figure out, this guy is toxic when it comes to relationships, anyways he is my best friend so I had to listen ...