That Bloke In The Big Smoke

There's no doubt the highlight of my trip to Oman was spending time with dad's 7-month old pooch. He's grown quite a bit since dad brought him home three months ago. I grew very attached to him and it took me at least a week to get over him after flying back to London. Even though dad, sis and I loved dogs, mum never let us keep one. She used to say we'd all go off to work/school, leaving her to look after the dog. Then years later our best friends left their Japanese spitz with us for one weekend. I remember mum telling me that looking after the dog wasn't such a terrible experience. She was never fond of dogs but I'm sure she would've grown to love Nero. He's such an adorable puppy, even if he refused to obey me most of the time! But like dogs in general, he never failed to follow my every movement. That's one thing everybody loves about dogs, loyalty. Wish I'd smuggled Nero out with me!



( 3 More Pics of Nero )

Dad's given him away to another family because he was too aggressive. It's been a steep but eye-opening learning curve. Ultimately, we've decided to go back to Plan A and settle on a pure breed black labrador or boxer.

The last time we celebrated my mum's birthday as a family, and a special occasion it was - her 50th! (10 June 2008, Muscat)

On the night of 9th April, my sister and her team of volunteers will camp overnight and take turns walking around the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life track to raise money, awareness and save more lives from cancer. It would be nice if you could make a donation towards their cause and the still larger cause of a cancer-free world! Thanks a lot for all your support, both before and after her death. :)

It's that time of the year when Hindus all over the world celebrate their version of the harvest festival. For Tamils, Pongal (lit: boils over or spillover) is their most important festival and this year more than 60 million of us will be celebrating our version of thanksgiving all over the world. Pongal is a celebration of the prosperity associated with the end of the harvest season and is celebrated for four days from the last day of the Tamil month Maargazhi (Dec/Jan) to the third day of Thai (Jan/Feb). [Tamil Calendar]

Unfortunately, it is more than twenty years since I last had the pleasure of actually being in Tamil Nadu during the festivities, but even while growing up in Oman I would look forward to it for two main reasons: my sister and I would always get a new pair of clothes and my mum would cook us all my favourite Tamil sweets and savouries.

In fact the 'boiling over' that takes place and gives us the name of the festival comes from the sweet boiling rice that is made by mixing it with milk and jaggery in pots topped with brown sugar, cashew nuts and raisins. The contents are then allowed to boil over and as soon as that happens, the tradition is to shout "Ponggalo Pongal" (see Subject above) while blowing a conch. It is considered good luck to watch the pot boiling over and that's how the festival gets its name and fame.

In the absence of my mum and lack of skills in boiling my own sweet rice dish, I will have to stay content with merely heating up a ready-to-eat packet of a different Tamil sweet dish. In years gone by, my mum would send a packet of pongal with me on my way back to university from Oman after the Christmas break and I would open it on Pongal. Oh well, maybe next year! Happy Pongal!


Sugarcane branches are used as decoration for the prayer-offering set up. We grew sugar cane in our house in Oman!


The traditional plates used in southern India are banana leaves upon which you can find the items used for the prayer (coconut shells, bananas and the Pongal dish itself - the yellow blob in the bottom-center of the leaf). The patterns on the ground are called kolam.