I am thinking...rather wondering

I have got into this mode where I am thinking about what makes people choose their profession (read course as in college/university). It is such an important decision of a person's life but I feel most people are not adequately equipped to make that decision. People around me (including myself), mostly follow what is in demand or what seems to be a sane choice according to elders and parents. It is not that they hate the subject and still do it because it is in demand, though on second thoughts, I think it might be the case for a few people.
For me, I had software engineering as the first choice because I thought I had the aptitude to write software. An idea formed due to some stupid programs written in the computer lab of our school. At that time though it seemed like an achievement. And another important factor was that I would get a good job. After all, most, if not all, software engineers get jobs in India. Yet another important factor was less struggle and easier life compared to some other professions like architecture, fashion, hotel management. All three of them were also on my mind at the time of decision making. But they lost the race due to the difficult life they entailed. And family members did not think the professions were good enough compared to engineer/doctor. Becoming a doctor was just out of reach for me, I was not so studious. So, software it is.
Do most people make this decision in a similar way? Calculated decision? Or do some people get an inner calling telling them what they are meant to do?
I feel at that young age, we do not know anything about how things are in different professions. This is especially true of people not living in metros. Sometimes I wonder what if we have made the wrong decision. There is no way to find out…at least for me. But at least I am happy that I am not bad at my job. My supervisors say I am quite good. He doesn't always say good things. But it is ok as long as he doesn't say only bad things ;) So maybe I can safely deduce that I made the right choice. Maybe it is all pre-decided up there and we just have an illusion that we made a choice, when it really wasn't a choice but it was destiny or our fate decided by God.

Ramblings of an irritated mind

This week has not started on the right note for me. A migraine attack, a flickering right eye and an overwhelming feeling of running right out of office, never to return again. All of this since yesterday and still going strong. I have always felt like I am not doing the right job and have written about it before. But I have never experienced this strong a feeling of resentment towards anything related to software engineering. If I hear any of the words like files, code, meeting, functions, execution and..well...you got the feel....All of these words make my brain heat up and let out smoke like a pan kept too long on the stove. I don’t remember the last time I was excited about my job. Am I made for some other job or is software engineering not for me? I work in a really nice company and the job is not so hectic either and I can’t seem to pin point a single reason why I should be feeling so fed up of working. How I hope I could just quit working! But even that is scary.
I hope my mind sorts itself out and starts to appreciate the fact that I have a job (seems like a remote possibility!).

An Experiment whose result was egg roll

This one was truly an experiment. I think I can call this egg rolls. Some background on how it happened and came to be known as egg roll. Friday night hubby dear had gone to meet his college friends so I was alone for dinner and I knew I can really experiment my heart out without worrying about backup food. And I wanted to do something with egg and wheat flour dough along the lines of egg puff. I love egg and specially boiled egg though Anurag likes more of masala egg..something like burji, omlette, egg curry and most of all sunny side up. So that was the root of wanting to boil eggs. And I read this post on how to boil eggs. I used to boil eggs before reading this post but initially there were a few failed attempts in terms of eggs being a little soft on the inside. Some interesting tips there to help peel the shells easily and avoid forming the bluish layer around the yolk. To get on with my take on egg rolls..sounds good doesnt it? ;) So on my walk back home from office, I was thinking what am I going to do...and slowly and steadily as I reached home, the idea had formed in my mind completely. So once I reached home, this is what I did.
Outer covering:
I mixed 1 cup of wheat flour, pinch of salt, pinch of sugar, pinch of baking soda. Broke an egg into it and mixed it and made a soft yet firm dough with milk instead of water. Covered and kept it for around 45 minutes. After that apply a teaspoon or two of oil and roll the dough in it.
Stuffing:
Hard boil 3 eggs. Peel and cut them into pieces. Run 2 onions and a green chilli in the food processor. Head oil and add the onions and fry them till they are transparent. Add turmeric, salt, little bit of garam masala and the eggs. Mix and keep aside to cool.
Assembly:
Roll out thin chapatis from the dough. I didn't use any flour for dusting. If the chapati tends to stick, apply few drops of oil on it to help it roll. Once you have a nice thin chapati, put some egg mixture in the center in a rectangular from and fold the chapati over it from all four sides. You will have a rectangular block. Heat a nonstick pan and put the blocks on it and cook them from all sides, applying some oil once they are done a bit. It would be best if you have an oven instead of using the pan. Once the rolls are crisp on all sides, cut into squares and enjoy with some tomato ketchup.
Loved them, nice spicy and crisp. Had them for breakfast the next day too. Its lunch time here and writing this is making my mouth water....need to go and have lunch NOW.

Bottlegourd and some magic

There is some magic in the combination of coconut, groundnut and tamarind which works for me. I have been completely floored by its taste. Yesterday night I made this combination work for lauki. It was love in first bite. :) I had a lovely, tender, seedless medium sized lauki. And two potatoes. Why potatoes? Well, I didn’t have any specific intentions when I added it except that it will add volume to the sabzi so that I can take it for lunch tomorrow and second intention was a seemingly vain attempt that hubby dear will eat it. But only later after eating it did I realize that potato played an important role in the taste. It is undistinguishable and yet adds a subtle taste of its own. Lauki being pretty bland otherwise. Guess what Anurag ate it! And liked it!!
Ok..so on with the procedure. (Procedure word scares me as it reminds me of programming ;) )
So you have the cut up lauki and potatoes. Get a wok, heat oil and add mustard seeds to let them splutter, add hing, curry leaves (about 6-7), garlic (4-5 cloves), haldi and the vegetables. Stir, cover, open, add salt, cover and cook till done. What do you do in the mean time? Make the paste which is going to make the sabzi delicious. Take a handful of coriander, half an inch of ginger, a green chili, about a 4 inch piece of coconut, handful..Make it two handfuls.. of roasted groundnuts and about a 3/4th small cup of tamarind water. Grind it to a paste. While you grind this, the sabzi will be cooked. This sabzi doesn’t require much oil. Now add the paste to it and some water if needed, some jaggery and bring to a boil. It should neither be a gravy nor a dry sabzi..somewhere in between....I am confusing you, ain’t I? Well, my point is just that the paste should coat the sabzi evenly, not be runny like gravy.

Day trip to Pearl Valley

I have been craving for a break..read a bike trip since a few weeks now. I don’t know whether it was more a craving to be with nature or a craving for a long ride on our beloved bull (Royal Enfield). But we haven’t been able to go anywhere because the weather and our health were not keeping too well. Finally this weekend we ‘had’ to satisfy the craving. Searched for some blogs on the internet for nearby places where we can see nature at its best. Finally we settled on Pearl Valley as it was near and the description was good. A waterfall just 40 kms from Bangalore sounded too good to be true. So the plan for Saturday was all set with the helpful fellow bloggers giving nice detailed directions on how to reach there.

Saturday morning I had an extension of yoga class where they taught us Neti kriya which aims at clearing the nasal cavity and prevents cold, allergy which are so widespread in Bangalore. So after I finished my class and reached home it was almost 10:15 in the morning. After that we were thinking should we pack something with us for lunch or have an early lunch and go as we had read that we don’t get good food there. Finally we prepared bread pakoda and ate quite a few of them and packed the 'Bingo' snacks with us. We were all ready with thick jackets as it is getting cold and cloudy here in Bangalore and it was also very windy that day. Next day we read in the newspaper that some trees fell on the road near cricket stadium. It was almost 12:30 by the time we left. We went straight till the road forked. The straight road leads to Bannerghatta national park, take the left turn from there and keep going straight. Lot of new construction and new layouts are coming up on the road. When you keep going straight, you reach Jigni town. There you will find a crossroad but don’t turn, keep going straight. You have to reach Anekal. If in doubt, ask for Anekal, which is what we did at the Jigni cross road. The auto driver said it is 11 km from there. Once we reached Anekal we were just going by instinct. I was the navigator and Anurag was the driver. You go through the road passing in front of the KSRTC bus stop and the busy town market. Once you are out of the town, some sign boards say Thalli Road. Keep going on the road and you will see a board on the right saying Happy Homes or something. Thats where you should turn and take the road on the right. It is quite near once you are out of Anekal. But we didnt take the turn, instead we kept going straight and finally reached the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border with sign boards saying Welcome to Tamil Nadu and Welcome to Karnataka respectively. Took pictures, turned back and took the correct turn. On the way 2 boys stop us to give a 7 Rs ticket. The road also seems to be newly built. Kept going till we reached Hotel Mayura Nisarga run by KSTDC. That is the place where we have to park for a 3 Rs ticket. This is for two wheelers. It is more for 4 wheelers. There are some steps which take you down. There is a temple which was closed, Rocks, water and a small stream of water falling. Cannot be called a water fall. I had read that water is there only when it has rained heavily. But we were not disappointed. It was so beautiful. The rocks, the water, the butterflies, the trees, the trek, the weather, the air...it was all so beautiful. It rained there and we were trekking on the mud path in the rain. It was the first time I was enjoying the rain without the fear of any consequences. It used to rain for 5-10 minutes and then stop for a while. It was nice to sit on the rocks and enjoy the beauty of nature. Whatever small stream of water was falling, it created small droplets and I had read that because the falling water creates droplets similar to pearls, the place is called Pearl Valley. Then we walked up and went to the restaurant and had tea. It tasted a bit strange..not sure why. We left from there at around 4:15.
The ride back was good…not as much traffic as we had while going. The roads are also good except for two patches of really slippery road. The TATA Sumo in front of us slipped and went right and again left before going straight. Anurag was scared more than me. I had two people to trust...Anurag and our bull. Not sure whom I trusted more to prevent falling ;) The ride has increased my love and respect for our bull. It has never failed us till now. The wind was so high that day; I could feel myself being pushed back or sideways due to it. Sometimes even the bike felt some push and pull due to the wind. I am glad we had such a sturdy vehicle...I would have been scared if we were on one of those plastic bikes.
Reached back by 5:30 and headed straight to the friendly neighborhood restaurant for 2 cups of coffee each, some idlis, dosas and chaat. Next day we were thinking of going to big banayan tree but were too lazy to do so. May be next time. On Sunday we went shopping instead at shoppers stop and Brand Factory. Also had lunch at The Dhaba at HSR layout. Food and service was unimpressive to say the least.

Dinner in a jiffy

After all the convenience foods bashing, I am all set to write how I put them to use yesterday. I reach home by 8:45 - 9 and to cook dinner after that is a challenge and convenience foods help me live up to the challenge. I prepared a exotic (I tried it for the first time hence 'exotic' ;)) vegetable. Mixed vegetables and paneer in coconut milk. Although I do not particularly like coconut, I give my thumbs up to coconut milk, obviously store bought, conveniently packed. So I got some pre-cut, packed mixed vegetables from food world, frozen peas, aashirwad multi-purpose cooking paste and the coconut milk. Also paneer, which I believe is no longer considered a convenience. I haven’t come across people who make paneer at home. I took some oil, put whole garam masalas like pepper corns, dalchini, bay leaf, cloves, elichi and let it sizzle for a minute. Add haldi and about a cup of mixed vegetables. Cover and cook till almost done. Stir the vegetables once in a while particularly if not using a non stick pan. Add salt, peas, paneer. Then about one and half teaspoon of cooking paste. Stir and add the contents of a small packet of coconut milk. Let it come to a boil and switch off immediately. And your dinner is ready in a jiffy.

Notice the absence of any spice powders like dhania powder, garam masala. The sizzling of whole garam masals in oil lends the flavour to this dish and so does coconut milk. Mild,creamy flavours is how I would describe this dish. Paneer makes this dish more creamier.

One more tip I would like to share regarding pav bhaji. Add little bit of beet root to the bhaji to get a wonderful color to the bhaji.

Oh for a breath of fresh air !

I am back after a long gap. Was not keeping too well in terms of health. Now I am fine or so I hope. Doc said the problems are due to stress. I would have been quite surprised to hear that but my mother (also a doc) had predicted the same cause. Stress has become such a common word in fact I should have been surprised to know I don’t experience stress. Looks like all people living in cities/metros are stressed. But still people want to live in metros. To live a 'high' life. To enjoy malls, super markets, convenience goods, frozen food, just a minute meal. But do we get any free time in spite of having all the tools meant for saving time at our disposal? What are we saving time for? So that we can work more, earn more and buy more time saving goods. Wow...what a vicious cycle. Of all the weekend options representing 'high life' (multiplexes, shopping malls, food courts and so on), my favorite weekend activity is going for long walks near the garden, better still riding far away from the maddening city towards nature. Simple joys, simple lives, simple meals, all of these are still the best sources of happiness. Do we need to live in cities for these things? I wonder why is a simple life of growing your own food and living in clean air, not considered a good option. It sounds like the best way to live, to me, but obviously doesn’t seem so, to a lot of other people.
Human mind is not the one to get satisfied easily...so says my husband. It wants to do more, discover more, invent more or just wants more...more power, more recognition which most often translates to more money. I guess humans were not satisfied just knowing how to grow/hunt food and eat it. They tried to find out ways to do things better and so the quest to satisfy the human brain with its endless power went on and on. Every five years there comes a new way to live and we wonder how we ever managed to live without this gadget.
But in the midst of all the brain power and innovation it brings, are we pushing ourselves as well as Mother Nature into danger? New diseases are cropping up trying to threaten mankind. But the human brain is trying to beat the viruses and bacteria in their quest for human suffering and I would like to think humans are succeeding. I hope we find a way to beat stress and pollution who are also on a quest for human suffering.
Global warming - the newest talk of the town, immediately comes to mind when I think of Mother Nature being harmed. I am sure we humans have the power to overcome it if only we put our brain power to use in order to regain what we have lost.
How I wish to smell clean air, the unpolluted smell of nature. Will this become a reality some day?