HoHoHo, shouldn't he be San Claus?

Isn't 'Santa' a female saint in Spanish? Aren't all the 'Santa' towns female? Like Santa Monica, Santa Clara, Santa Fe, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara etc.

Isn't 'San' a male saint in Spanish? Aren't all the 'San' towns male? Like San Francisco, San Juan, San Carlos, San Pedro, San Antonio etc.

Why then is Santa Claus a guy? If he is a guy, shouldn't he be called San Claus? 

Anyway, ignore my random questions and continue to rock that party you are at! 

Here's wishing everyone a very happy 2010!

The good-u and the bad-u of the Bengaluru trip-u

The Good: Scout managed the flight very well.

The Bad: We got labeled as irresponsible parents by one couple for letting him crawl over the aisles (supervised). Hey, but at least he wasn't cranky like a bunch of other kids who were forcefully stuck to their parents' laps.

The Good: No real stranger anxiety for the Scout.

The Bad: He couldn't loose sight of me for more than 30 minutes though. Thus were squashed all my gallivanting plans.

The Good: Bought a ton of books.

The Bad: The packing and also managing them in front of the Scout who is in a book-tearing phase.

The Good: Ate at many restaurants and loved them all. The Scout ate too and didn't fall sick once.

The Bad: The mega argument between the GI and me about eating out -- if we are doing the right thing with money that can be better used for some of the other causes we are pursuing.

The ugly: Child labor in one of the restaurants.

The Good: Met quite a few uncles, aunts and cousins.

The Bad: Did not get to meet a few other cousins because of ancestral real estate squabbles even though we are removed from the actual fight by n-degrees.

The Good: Met quite a few undergrad friends who made it a point to call and trekked half-way over Bangalore to meet.

The Bad: Could not contact any of the 3 Bangalore bloggers I know. :( And now that I'm back, I feel even sadder about not meeting them when I had the chance.

Sigh... !

Bengaluru street food: the humble peanut

Got back from Bengaluru weighing some x pounds more. Among the seven sins, I might surely die of gluttony. Can you believe me if I said I ate 5 types of peanuts in Bangalore? Yes, even before chaat, chinese or any others took over the Bangalore street-food scene, there was the humble peanut in its many varieties.

Raw

Sold on carts on the street. Juicy. High in protein.

Roasted

Usually roasted over coal or hot sand stoves. Crunchy munchies. Some eat it with a piece of jaggery. Some eat it with chilli and lime.

Boiled

Boiled in water with a spoonful of salt. Soft and succulent goodness.

Bonda kadalekaayi (Bonda peanut)

Battered in spicy chickpea flour and fried in oil. Can we make it any less healthy? Unlikely. Can we make it any more tasty? Unlikely.

And last but not the least, the Congress:

When Mrs.Indira Gandhi decided to split the Congress party, the snack makers of Bangalore decided they would follow the leader and split the humble peanut. While she split the party, added politicking masala and ruled roost over India, the snack-makers split the peanut, added masala, roasted and ruled over Bangalore. Thus was born the Congress kadaLekaayi (peanut) or simply 'Congress'. A mind-numbing, tongue-burning, cant-stop-eating peanut snack, the likes of which Bangalore had never tasted before.