Befuddlement over a name!!

Those of you who have been following my blog would have noticed that the blog's name has changed within a fortnight's time, or maybe even lesser than that! Why have I christened it differently? It was certainly me who came up with that tad ridiculous previous name, so why did I decide to change it? Here are the reasons:

1) Some people started confusing the blog for a Cookery Website. "Do you post recipes over there", I was asked by a few. They were highly sceptical about my blog, and I am sure they would have accused me of plagiarism mentally. Why? Because I cant, or rather, don't know to cook. So it is obvious that if I run a site about cookery, the recipes will most certainly not be mine! My greatest culinary accomplishment has been making noodles! What an achievement indeed! ( Well, I have a feeling that you all have already begun to sympathise with my future husband! You don't have to, though, because I know that somewhere inside me, I am harbouring the cookery skills akin to those of Sanjeev Kapoor. Where exactly are those latent skills to found, is a question that remains to be answered! ) Anyway, I had a hard time explaining that the blog had nothing to do with food. "Why on earth would you choose to name a blog after food when it has absolutely zilch to do with it?", they asked in a rather scornful manner. I fathomed that some ( well, most ) of them were of the opinion that I had lost it.  Their reactions were something similar to this:  
                                           
                                    

                           
 2) Once I had cleared people's misconceptions about my blog, I decided that there would be no ambiguity in my blog's new name (or is it rather called URL, or web address?! I am sorry, I am not sure). So while I was racking my brain, I decided that even if my posts don't, at least the name of the blog should inspire awe and sow seeds of interests in the readers' minds. Thus I settled at niftymentations. People will, or might, come here looking for great ideas that inspire them, or in the hope that I will help them take a fresh perspective on things, or at least give them the dose of motivation they have been longing for, because that is what exactly the blog's name purports to mean. Am I delivering upon that? I am not sure. But if not for anything else, I am sure that I would have, at the least, inspired them to open a blog of their own. "If SHE can write, so can I", they MIGHT have thought dismissively! So if at all I have succeeded in inspiring any of you to do so, do drop me a line in the comments box!! This however, doesn't by any chance mean that you're supposed to comment only if you're contemptuous of my blog!! Feel free to write all the wonderful things that come to your mind! ( Just making things clear over here, you see! )

3) I am a girl. And a pretty indecisive one, just like the others. So I am entitled to change my mind as many times as I want. Just like how I change my outfit 10 times before ending up wearing the very same dress that I had chosen in the beginning, I can, and most certainly will keep changing my mind. My opinions oscillate all the time. I either utterly deify someone, or otherwise detest them completely. There are NO in-betweens. For those of you who don't know, my blog was initially named idliandpizza, and then I changed it to dosasandpizzas, and NOW it stands at niftymentations. What a dramatic transformation! Almost like the blog ( or its name, rather ) has been transmogrified!! Not only the name of the blog, but I was in a horrible dilemma over the name of this post too! I was not able to come up with anything that could help the readers comprehend what this post is all about. After thinking  for over 10 minutes, an idea FINALLY struck me! I was addled and unable to come up with a proper name, so why not, I thought, name the post just that!! Thus I decided to christen it 'befuddlement over a name'. Whether it appears smart or stupid to others, the sad truth is, I am not very creative or eloquent when it comes to, well, expressing my thoughts. However, coming back to the viewpoint regarding the dress, will I finally revert to the original blog name? The answer is, I don't know! Why?! Because, I am indecisive. Or maybe, I am not! I am not so sure anymore!! 

                             

GIF sourced from reactiongif.com

Image sourced from Google

Oh those "lovely" summers!

I have seen a lot of people residing in the colder parts of Europe and America quetch about how much they loathe the winters/monsoons, and wish it was summer already! Everytime I step out of my home in Dubai, these people INSTANTLY come to my mind! EVERY SINGLE TIME!!

 

As most of you know, Dubai is a desert. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that it is sweltering hot here during most days of the year. It is scorching hot during the day, and the temperature continues to soar as the day progresses.. Using a parasol wont do you much good. There is no SHADE ANYWHERE!! Even the nights aren't spared. It is sultry even at around 11pm! Trust me, I am NOT hyperbolising. 

While the ice-bucket challenge is quite popular globally currently, UAE residents have been undertaking the " Blistering" bucket challenge, day in and day out! You don't have to switch on the water heater here during the summer ( which lasts for roughly about 9 months! ). All you have to do is turn the tap, and there you go! Steaming hot water gushes forth! Extremely attractive to those who are looking for ways to cut down their electricity bill, isn't it? However, this will be more than compensated for by their energy bill for having kept the AC switched on, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!!

Anyway, the story about the unbearable summers in Dubai doesn't end there! If you venture out of your home for a few minutes, you begin to wish that you lived in Iceland instead! Worse still, you return looking like a burnt potato ( thereby also shattering a woman's dream of finding a fair skinned daughter in law for her son, who probably shares the complexion of a Raven ).

The situation is exacerbated if you're brown like me. You HAVE to apply three layers of SPF 50+ sunblock before you bless the outdoors with your presence. You struggle to fit in your sunblock lotion into your bag that already is hardly accomodating your brolly, sunglasses and several bottles of water ( rather, life-fluid! ) Over here, life is honestly easier for the White-skinned ones! They don't have to shell out a penny to fake a tan. They don't even have to bother visiting the beach-side! ALL  they have to do is step into their balconies for a few minutes! Voila! Mission accomplished!! Life is unfair like that. I once picked up a tanning lotion mistaking it for a sunblock! Imagine what an earth-shattering realization it would've been when I noticed my almost unforgivable folly!! However, I have never understood why the white skinned people yearn for sun-kissed, brown hued skin, while those who are blessed with brown skin long for that pinkish complexion! India's obsession with white skin can be attributed to the numerous Fairness Cream Ads that are televised everyday in Indian Channels. "Not fair = Not good" is the idea perpetrated notoriously by these ridiculous ads, thereby cultivating feelings of inferiority in the minds of those who are not fair. The promises made by these ads are ridiculous, to say the least. Immensely pressurized to look fair, and let down by these products that caused all this tension in the first place, most brown girls step out of their homes mildly resembling this girl who has draped herself in a white blanket:

                                      

Anyway, this post doesn't intend on debating whether fair skin is a desirable quality or not, which must have been quite evident from its title! 

So, cutting the cackle, if these people cant stand the perennial winters or the constant downpours in their country of domicile, ALL I want to tell them is - YALLA HABIBI!! Come to Dubai!!!

Images sourced from Google.

Hi There!

A big hello to the people who have nothing better to do at the moment, and hence are going through my blog!

First things first! Why the name Dosas and Pizzas? Frankly speaking, I had other names in mind. Nothing very intellectual, but nothing lamer either. But apparently, there are other people out there who think along my lines, and I am not very pleased about it! They have stolen my ideas for a blog name before I could even come up with them! So unprofessional, I say! I digress, and I will continue to do so, so I apologize in advance. Very polite of me, I know!  

*Ting*  

So, coming back to where I started, though I couldn't come up with any other name using my grey matter that just refused to co-operate with me, I finally ended up with the one I have chosen. But you see, it speaks volumes about the average Indian, or rather, South Indian to be specific. Though we begin our mornings with a breakfast consisting of Dosa, we prefer to end the night on something fancier, like a Pizza, or if you're akin to me, preferably some North Indian delicacy.
Our lives depend on this delicate balance between juggling Indian and Western Culture.( How is a North Indian delicacy supposed to form part of WESTERN CULTURE, you might ask. And my blog's name will answer your question. Hence the name, Dosa and PIZZA. But, is pizza part of WESTERN cuisine? Who knows? )
We wear jeans, but nothing beats the beauty of an Indian girl decked up in traditional Indian attire. We are Indian on the inside, and wish we looked like a westerner on the outside. At times, we masquarade like Westerners, to impress a non-entity. But thats not the point here. The crux is, we try to balance the best of both worlds. Getting my point? Good!

So why pizza? I don't know of any other Int'l dishes, pasta and the like dont just appeal to me. And moreover most of us are more familiar with Pizzas than the other cornucopia of foreign dishes out there. AND Pizza rhymes well with Dosa. At least I feel so.

One more question might be running in your minds. Why preference for Dosas? Doesn't that constitute prejudice against the better looking Idlis? I will leave that for you guys to crack!

Thats it for now! Will try to come up with better stuff in the near future (provided my brain acquiesces)

Ciao!

PS: The real reason behind the christening of my blog is .... MY LOVE  FOR FOOD!! 

Image sourced from Google.