Sitcom Sitters Chat Club #6 ~ Take Care, Be Aware~ (IO) - Page 22

Agree with how your are handling it there, Wisu. That's the sane thing to do as you are yet to build a circle which can support you there.

This is an unpredictable virus too and while the recovery rate is good, you never know how it works out with individuals. So people should take as many precautions as they can.

We moved to Malaysia in 2018 end. But in both places, people at the store don't converse at all. Bill and check-out. That's it.

Agree with you on the US experience. They'll start chatting on the products you have in your cart or even the weather. :)

Your conversation with your mother resonates with me. When we moved to SG or Malaysia, and my husband used to travel on business, it was the same situation. And I wasn't even calling my parents every day. :/

Do you get basic Indian groceries easily there?

Originally posted by: Wisian

Do people talk in the grocery stores in Singapore?
In US, they do. The cashiers won't stay silent.
In Europe, they don't don't.

My only contact is with my mother. I call her up everyday, and somedays, she tells me: aaj time nahin hai, kal phone karnaa, and I plead with her: thodi der to baat kar lo mujhse, please... I haven't spoken a word all day to anyone...

I think, there has never been a formal lock-down here. At one point of time, the streets just became deserted. But now, they seem to be full again.
I think, I still remain a little paranoid, and somewhat hypochondriac too... One has to be if one is living alone. Compared to the other people, I am taking the social distancing to an excess (but if I were to fall sick, I will have no support here, so it is the reasonable thing to do).

Yes, I remember you were talking about this show and had recommended it.

I think BB is also treading this path. It's more or less a fictional show with people playing themselves. The creative team controls the levers to make or break an image and prop up someone.

I had seen a couple of episodes of the last season when I was in India and was struck by how rudely and arrogantly a guy was behaving. He went on to win the show, as I found out later. Do people actually vote for this?

Originally posted by: Wisian

Yeah, that is another thing - I always overlook how much interference there is in the show. "Reality" angle bachaa hi nahin hai...

Some years ago I was a show (fictional) call unReal. It is based on filming crew that is shooting a reality show... bridegroom picks up the bride... and gosh! If you see it, you'll know how brutal the producers of the show become when they need to generate content.
I watched unReal and thought that this is an extreme - but I can quite imagine how the same story plays out with all these shows.

Originally posted by: Kwerky

Agree with how your are handling it there, Wisu. That's the sane thing to do as you are yet to build a circle which can support you there.

This is an unpredictable virus too and while the recovery rate is good, you never know how it works out with individuals. So people should take as many precautions as they can.

We moved to Malaysia in 2018 end. But in both places, people at the store don't converse at all. Bill and check-out. That's it.

Agree with you on the US experience. They'll start chatting on the products you have in your cart or even the weather. :)

Your conversation with your mother resonates with me. When we moved to SG or Malaysia, and my husband used to travel on business, it was the same situation. And I wasn't even calling my parents every day. :/

Do you get basic Indian groceries easily there?

In the US, they take it to an extreme, if you ask me. When I was living there, I would have moments when I'd really just want to bag the groceries and be out, but the chatty cashier will continue telling me how wonderful the almond butter I had bought was... They tend to think that they have to demonstrate "friendliness" by engaging in such idle chatter. :D

I kinda liked it how cool they played it in Switzerland... Exchange some words but not too much. Yahaan, the cashiers are not as courteous as they were in Switzerland, but they do say "Hello" and "Goodbye"...

I found an asian shop here... It smells weird. They don't have all the masaley. For example, I couldn't find mustard seeds - or what we would "sarson" in Hindi; I got the smaller variant instead (which I have never used before and these are nowhere close to the mustard seeds in taste). But jeera, mirch, haldi... these I have aplenty. :)
March mein mainey nimbu ka achaar dalaa tha; so long as I have the achaar, I don't need anything else. Boiled chawal-dal with achaar is perfect in itself. :)

Originally posted by: Kwerky

Yes, I remember you were talking about this show and had recommended it.

I think BB is also treading this path. It's more or less a fictional show with people playing themselves. The creative team controls the levers to make or break an image and prop up someone.

I had seen a couple of episodes of the last season when I was in India and was struck by how rudely and arrogantly a guy was behaving. He went on to win the show, as I found out later. Do people actually vote for this?

Hum Bigg Boss ki baat kar rahe hain? Log to election mein jab vote kartey hain, tab abhadra logon ke liye vote daal aatey hain... 😛

But I see your point... who knows ki kisko kitney vote miley.

Ultimately, I also think, the producers just sit and decide ki content sabse zyaada kaun dengey - and those people are retained.

How is the corona situation in your city, Kwerky? We hear very little about south-east asia. Is it because the pandemic has been controlled?

How are your parents and family in India doing?

In three weeks, Bigg Boss will start...
I might watch it this year, but I am not sure how to do that...

It's better now in Malaysia and pretty much under control. Around 40-50 cases a day now. We were under a strict lockdown for over 2 months and everything was shut. Nearly everything is open now but wearing masks and registering at every place you visit is mandatory. International borders are still closed, so that helps. Most countries in this region have controlled it now except Philippines, Indonesia.

Family is fine. My parents were visiting my brother in Mumbai when the lockdown was announced. So they were stuck in Mumbai from March to June. I say stuck because Papa finds it very difficult to sit without work and here he was confined to an apartment for nearly 3 months. :)) He has a lot of plants and a huge kitchen garden back in Gurgaon which keeps him occupied. They got back to Gurgaon as soon as domestic flights resumed. 😊

Originally posted by: Wisian

How is the corona situation in your city, Kwerky? We hear very little about south-east asia. Is it because the pandemic has been controlled?

How are your parents and family in India doing?

Originally posted by: Wisian

In three weeks, Bigg Boss will start...
I might watch it this year, but I am not sure how to do that...

There are websites which upload the link to the daily episodes. You can also watch it on Voot, the OTT platform of Colors. But you'll need a VPN for that as it is geo-restricted and not open to international viewers.

Originally posted by: Wisian

In the US, they take it to an extreme, if you ask me. When I was living there, I would have moments when I'd really just want to bag the groceries and be out, but the chatty cashier will continue telling me how wonderful the almond butter I had bought was... They tend to think that they have to demonstrate "friendliness" by engaging in such idle chatter. :D

I kinda liked it how cool they played it in Switzerland... Exchange some words but not too much. Yahaan, the cashiers are not as courteous as they were in Switzerland, but they do say "Hello" and "Goodbye"...

I found an asian shop here... It smells weird. They don't have all the masaley. For example, I couldn't find mustard seeds - or what we would "sarson" in Hindi; I got the smaller variant instead (which I have never used before and these are nowhere close to the mustard seeds in taste). But jeera, mirch, haldi... these I have aplenty. :)
March mein mainey nimbu ka achaar dalaa tha; so long as I have the achaar, I don't need anything else. Boiled chawal-dal with achaar is perfect in itself. :)

Aaah. Nimbu achaar+ dal chawal is soul food.

I have never made achaar as I get it from mom whenever we visit India. Her nimbu and aam one is splendid.

On the subject of achaar, have you ever heard of 'aloo ka achaar'? My husband had a classmate in school whose mom used to make aloo ka achaar. He still recalls that taste, says it's one of the best pickles he has every had and looks for aloo achaar everywhere. 😆Never found it, of course. I even tried to trace that friend on Facebook for him but couldn't find him.

Haan, shops which stock food from S.E. Asia do have different smells owing to what they stock. It took me some time to adjust to the very strong food smells in Singapore. :) There's a fruit called durian, which is like their national fruit and a delicacy. It's banned from public transport owing to its smell. But its widely available in local markets, supermarkets....

Here is how its smell is decsribed in Wikipedia: Some people regard the durian as having a pleasantly sweet fragrance, whereas others find the aroma overpowering with an unpleasant odour. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage. 😆

So it was a shock when I first visited a market where durian was being sold. 😳 I never mustered the courage to taste it in all the years I was there. They make ice creams, cakes, cookies etc from it, besides having it like a fruit.

Good that you found the basic staples there. 😊

Originally posted by: Kwerky

It's better now in Malaysia and pretty much under control. Around 40-50 cases a day now. We were under a strict lockdown for over 2 months and everything was shut. Nearly everything is open now but wearing masks and registering at every place you visit is mandatory. International borders are still closed, so that helps. Most countries in this region have controlled it now except Philippines, Indonesia.

Family is fine. My parents were visiting my brother in Mumbai when the lockdown was announced. So they were stuck in Mumbai from March to June. I say stuck because Papa finds it very difficult to sit without work and here he was confined to an apartment for nearly 3 months. :)) He has a lot of plants and a huge kitchen garden back in Gurgaon which keeps him occupied. They got back to Gurgaon as soon as domestic flights resumed. 😊

The lock-down was knee-jerk a reaction, and completely ineffective (as the numbers tell us now).
I hope, the kitchen garden survived.

3 mahiney kisney paani diya podhon ko? My mother also grows a lot of vegetables, and she wouldn't trust another person to take over this responsibility. :D