But like most issues these too got resolved. Jispa got one week of constant attention (unpleasant attention) and we too grew up. As Adam Smith prophesized, when there is free speech, both parties feel equally bad, a willingness to listen to the other point of view and when one set is in absolute total authority, typically equilibrium is achieved. Oh ok – that was nowhere near Adam Smith, but we still achieved equilibrium. Only time will tell if the ‘dambrium’ is stable and lasting or a temporary truce.
Till then its business as usual. These days our weekends are spent with jispa at her swim meets. She has been competing pretty well and we have been coping pretty ok. These competitions take a lot out of you. You carry the right food and drink and snacks and the works. The only way I began to look forward to these is not her swimming but, in a moment of epiphany one Sunday morning – I decided to make this a picnic. So we carry sandwiches, cold coffee, lemon juice and the works. We have a chiller box, we recently bought and so we stuff that with the goodies and ice and off we go. Jispa’s swimming has dramatically improved. She seems to be amongst the top ten swimmers in her age group in Mumbai. Her butterfly has dramatically improved. Last year she was ten seconds off the number one swimmer and yesterday she trailed by 2 seconds to finish fourth. And her technique stills requires improvement.
Jispa many times is impervious to talks on swimming technique. She knows that we know jack shit about swimming so she doesn’t really pay too much heed to what we say to her. But then yesterday I hit upon another idea. I took videos of her contest and then showed the same to her. I explained frame by frame the difference in the techniques. Of course to the best of my ability. Then I also took a video of the best swimmer of the meet and explained some subtle nuances of his technique. That seemed to get her thinking. I don’t think she would be able to follow my analysis, but I surely drilled into her the fun of being technically correct. That itself should add a dimension to her swimming. She must be cognizant of the need to be technically correct if she wants to break the top three.
Luckily this meet was in the afternoon and the mornings were spent making breakfast. The days we don’t see a movie on Sunday mornings, the most of the morning is devoted to reading newspapers and making breakfast. The only way I can deal with chores is to have a Zen like state of mind while doing them. I take pride in doing the chores the right way. If I have to iron my shirt, I take extra care to get the creases just right. If I wipe the floors, I take it tile by tile, straight lines, no dust untouched. Ditto with dishes and the best is in the kitchen. Especially with the sandwiches. On saturday I had the good fortune of making a sandwich from the Panini bread that Jasmine got for me. In fact I enjoyed making it so much that I took step by step photos of the process. I cut the all the veggies myself. I have been practicing cutting them since a long time and I take great pride in cutting them as thin as possible.
So here are the pics of the steps involved
Pic 1 – the butter chutney and the veggies. I filled in the cucumbers after the photo
Pic 2 – Jalapenos, olives only on my side (Jasmine doesn’t like them too much) and the paneer. I learnt to put Paneer in Sandwiches from Turkey. They make some the best sandwiches I have ever eaten.
Pic 3 – Cheese, oregano, salt and pepper. The oregano is the one you get with Domino’s pizza. Jasmine loves the mix they have. It is oregano with salt and some other spices including red pepper. It’s quite awesome. Jasmine always takes extra and stores them. You should put the stuff on buttered toast and have. Yum.
Pic 4 – On the griller. This one is thanks to my sister. We never would have bought one. There was never enough space. But given one, we love to use it.
Pic 5 – happily squashed. They do get thinner when grilled.
Pic 6 – served – the only plate as big is the cutting board. Check the attempt to pass of crass mass produced ketchups as special sauces. It’s the fun of serving. Jasmine and me both prefer to clean the entire table of the mess and sit to eat on a nice clean table, with all the stuff either in the fridge, or on shelves or inside the dustbin.
Almost everything tastes nice or every chore manageable if you take pride in them. Take pride in them. But of course, as Jasmine would add, do it every day you wouldn’t have as much pride. But then… if you do it every day, it’s your job and not a chore. Oh ya… that’s probably explains why most jobs are chores. But then……. Oh chuck it. Never mind.
But I did get super excited over a sandwich didn’t I?
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