Yesterday I was watching KBC while waiting for my husband to return from office. I am not a regular viewer of the show. But, yesterday, I missed my swimming classes. I am planning to miss it today too. Well, I have a reason which I am stretching to bunk 2 days of swimming. I haven’t learnt much of swimming yet. But day before yesterday, after finishing my swimming class, I felt feverish with huge amount of body pain and for the first time, I was not able to point out which part of my body was giving me the most pain. ;) Also, by the time I reached home, I was shivering and had to take 3 blankets in the summer month. But now I am as healthy as I can get with 2 tablets down my throat.
Coming back to KBC, a young guy was a contestant and he said 2 crores are not enough to fulfill his dream which was to topple the government of Swaziland and be the king of the land. What a dream! May I say...weird dream! It got me thinking that only young people can dream of becoming kings/queens. I haven't come across an older person with such dreams. They have more realistic dreams like owning a flat/bungalow or a small/big car depending on the state and 'thinking big' capacity of the person. Again, people get 'older'(mature is a better word I guess) once they start earning their own money or at least after the initial high of earning money gives way to 'I need more than this' race.
Weird dreams are replaced by realistic dreams, adventure is replaced by boring routine, and enthusiasm for life is replaced by the race for all things material.
I can't imagine myself wanting to be a queen. I would say, let me own a small apartment first. But then, who wants a small apartment? How about a duplex flat, a penthouse, a bungalow with at least 2 cars parked in its compound? Better not go so far. So, I guess I am left with no dreams.
One of my friend says (He has taken it from a book) "Dream, and the whole universe conspires to help you realize your dream". But if you are one of those lazy kinds (like me), the universe might not help you!
By the way, heard of Swaziland before? I hadn’t. It is an African country. Coming to it, maybe the contestant could have dreamt bigger and wanted to be king of Switzerland instead. ;)
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Never try Gujarati thali in Bangalore
Yesterday I went to ‘Zaika’ restaurant in Raheja Arcade in Koramangala in hope of eating Gujarati thali. There was a mention of this restaurant and that it serves Gujarati thali, in Bangalore Times on Friday.
And as you know, I have been praising Gujarati food; I thought we can try it out. But now, after eating it, I can understand why people wouldn't like Gujarati thali.
It was bad. They tried but the result was far from the real Gujarati food. Yes, they made it sweet. People should understand that sugar is an ingredient in Gujarati food, but it is not the only ingredient. There has to be a good proportion of spicy taste in it and sweet is just to offset the spices. Anyway, what made it worse was the price. Priced at 125 per thali, and limited food, it made matters worse. The katoris in which they provided the vegetables were so small, they could be meant for infants. Me being used to the unlimited Gujarati thali with lots of dishes, it was a major disappointment.
I guess everybody read the Friday article and came to eat the thali. So there was a waiting time of 20 mins outside the restaurant. Then once we were seated at the table,
10 mins later a waiter comes to clean it and put fresh table mats (paper ones) and get us glasses of water. After another long wait come something which could pass of as cold milk and some papads which we thought came to our table instead of the neighboring table. But the papads were good. Another long long wait for the thali and when it came, it was like a needle to prick my excitement. They tried to make undhiyo which was ok.
They tried the potato curry (gujju style). Major disappointment. Didn't finish even the infant size portion of it. Then there was kadhi which was the only thing which was close to the real taste. Also a piece of khaman/dhokla with sweet chutney (sweet being the key word :) ) They give 3 chapattis and a bowl of jeera rice. It is quite enough to fill your stomach but does not leave you satisfied.
The owners have an idea but they haven't planned the execution well (in fact not at all planned). Nothing compared to the execution style of neighboring ‘Gramin’ restaurant. It does leave you impressed and satisfied even if you have to wait for your turn at the table.
Let me leave Gramin to another blog. All in all, go there if you are really craving Gujarati thali and have no other option. Never go there if you want to see what a Gujarati thali is...
And as you know, I have been praising Gujarati food; I thought we can try it out. But now, after eating it, I can understand why people wouldn't like Gujarati thali.
It was bad. They tried but the result was far from the real Gujarati food. Yes, they made it sweet. People should understand that sugar is an ingredient in Gujarati food, but it is not the only ingredient. There has to be a good proportion of spicy taste in it and sweet is just to offset the spices. Anyway, what made it worse was the price. Priced at 125 per thali, and limited food, it made matters worse. The katoris in which they provided the vegetables were so small, they could be meant for infants. Me being used to the unlimited Gujarati thali with lots of dishes, it was a major disappointment.
I guess everybody read the Friday article and came to eat the thali. So there was a waiting time of 20 mins outside the restaurant. Then once we were seated at the table,
10 mins later a waiter comes to clean it and put fresh table mats (paper ones) and get us glasses of water. After another long wait come something which could pass of as cold milk and some papads which we thought came to our table instead of the neighboring table. But the papads were good. Another long long wait for the thali and when it came, it was like a needle to prick my excitement. They tried to make undhiyo which was ok.
They tried the potato curry (gujju style). Major disappointment. Didn't finish even the infant size portion of it. Then there was kadhi which was the only thing which was close to the real taste. Also a piece of khaman/dhokla with sweet chutney (sweet being the key word :) ) They give 3 chapattis and a bowl of jeera rice. It is quite enough to fill your stomach but does not leave you satisfied.
The owners have an idea but they haven't planned the execution well (in fact not at all planned). Nothing compared to the execution style of neighboring ‘Gramin’ restaurant. It does leave you impressed and satisfied even if you have to wait for your turn at the table.
Let me leave Gramin to another blog. All in all, go there if you are really craving Gujarati thali and have no other option. Never go there if you want to see what a Gujarati thali is...
Friday, March 30, 2007
Memory Lane down Gujarati Food
Two posts about food in a day!! That means at least two things:
1. I have food on my mind.
2. I don’t have anything else to do. :)
Well, let me leave it at that. Now to get on with what inspired me to write this post. It was this blog http://thespicewholovedme.blogspot.com
This blog has some mouth watering, mind boggling.... gujju recipes. I am a great fan of gujju food. I was literally going mad looking at all those pictures and recipes. Although, I am not a Gujarati, I spend my entire childhood there and I was the one in our house to love any kind of Gujarati food. Well, rest of my family isn't too keen on food. That explains the size difference between me and them. ;)
Thinking of the Gujarati food does make me nostalgic. You might wonder what is so special about it or you might think its all sweet. But that is far from being true.
To taste real Gujarati food, you need to come to Gujarat. How can someone not like the food? I find that hard to imagine.
The khakaras are quite famous, so is dhokla. Dhokla does make me weak. These days in Bangalore we get dhoklas at food courts in the malls. I can’t pass by a stall featuring dhokla without eating it.
The dhebras...hmmmm....fried puri like but so much yummier than puris. And then there is chundo, the grated mango sweet, spicy all at once. I can eat it with anything or when I eat something I did not like, I refresh my taste buds by eating a spoonful of chundo.
Then there is handvo. You can eat it any time of the day. And the undhiyo...how can I forget that? I spent my childhood days waiting for undhiyo party to happen.
And the day it happened, I was one excited kid. We used to go to a farm and there they give 'matla undhiyo' (translated to pot undhiyo). They bake the beans, the sweet potatoes, potatoes etc in earthen pots with their mouths covered with dried grass or something. Then serve these baked veggies with spicy green chutney, also the sweet chutney, sev, oil
We had to take the beans out of their covering, mash the potatoes and them mix all chutneys and eat it. I will remember the taste all my life. Nothing can beat it. Then you have jalebi with it. It is the yellow, crisp jalebi unlike the orange, softer version which I saw in Maharashtra. I love the yellow jalebi. Haven’t eaten it since I left Gujarat :(
The other version of undhiyo which is more cooked vegetable kind is also great.
Then there is this fulvadi with mattho. Fulvadi is fried vadi...not sure of details but extremely spicy and when you have it with curd based mattha, it tastes just perfect.
Oh yes, then there is ‘papdi no lot’ (translated to papdi dough). You wouldn’t have heard of people eating dough but once you taste this you will wonder how the dough can be left to be turned into papdi (similar to papad). The steamed dough is eaten with oil drizzled over it. I am pretty sure, women in Gujarat would hide some ‘papdi no lot’ from family
members otherwise they can never prepare papdi. The oil is poured to reduce the spiciness of the dough.
I can not get enough of Gujarati food. Though the real fact is that I have had it only few times till now. I am not talking of the gujarati thali. That I have everytime I go there but the other things that make the Gujarati food so much more fun. We didn't prepare this at home so I had it only when friends and neighbors used to send them to us. I am thankful to all the people who introduced me to the delightful tastes of Gujarati food. I hope everyone gets to taste it. It will remain with you forever.
1. I have food on my mind.
2. I don’t have anything else to do. :)
Well, let me leave it at that. Now to get on with what inspired me to write this post. It was this blog http://thespicewholovedme.blogspot.com
This blog has some mouth watering, mind boggling.... gujju recipes. I am a great fan of gujju food. I was literally going mad looking at all those pictures and recipes. Although, I am not a Gujarati, I spend my entire childhood there and I was the one in our house to love any kind of Gujarati food. Well, rest of my family isn't too keen on food. That explains the size difference between me and them. ;)
Thinking of the Gujarati food does make me nostalgic. You might wonder what is so special about it or you might think its all sweet. But that is far from being true.
To taste real Gujarati food, you need to come to Gujarat. How can someone not like the food? I find that hard to imagine.
The khakaras are quite famous, so is dhokla. Dhokla does make me weak. These days in Bangalore we get dhoklas at food courts in the malls. I can’t pass by a stall featuring dhokla without eating it.
The dhebras...hmmmm....fried puri like but so much yummier than puris. And then there is chundo, the grated mango sweet, spicy all at once. I can eat it with anything or when I eat something I did not like, I refresh my taste buds by eating a spoonful of chundo.
Then there is handvo. You can eat it any time of the day. And the undhiyo...how can I forget that? I spent my childhood days waiting for undhiyo party to happen.
And the day it happened, I was one excited kid. We used to go to a farm and there they give 'matla undhiyo' (translated to pot undhiyo). They bake the beans, the sweet potatoes, potatoes etc in earthen pots with their mouths covered with dried grass or something. Then serve these baked veggies with spicy green chutney, also the sweet chutney, sev, oil
We had to take the beans out of their covering, mash the potatoes and them mix all chutneys and eat it. I will remember the taste all my life. Nothing can beat it. Then you have jalebi with it. It is the yellow, crisp jalebi unlike the orange, softer version which I saw in Maharashtra. I love the yellow jalebi. Haven’t eaten it since I left Gujarat :(
The other version of undhiyo which is more cooked vegetable kind is also great.
Then there is this fulvadi with mattho. Fulvadi is fried vadi...not sure of details but extremely spicy and when you have it with curd based mattha, it tastes just perfect.
Oh yes, then there is ‘papdi no lot’ (translated to papdi dough). You wouldn’t have heard of people eating dough but once you taste this you will wonder how the dough can be left to be turned into papdi (similar to papad). The steamed dough is eaten with oil drizzled over it. I am pretty sure, women in Gujarat would hide some ‘papdi no lot’ from family
members otherwise they can never prepare papdi. The oil is poured to reduce the spiciness of the dough.
I can not get enough of Gujarati food. Though the real fact is that I have had it only few times till now. I am not talking of the gujarati thali. That I have everytime I go there but the other things that make the Gujarati food so much more fun. We didn't prepare this at home so I had it only when friends and neighbors used to send them to us. I am thankful to all the people who introduced me to the delightful tastes of Gujarati food. I hope everyone gets to taste it. It will remain with you forever.
Experiments in Cooking and Me..
I am writing this post because I am happy I concealed the lauki (bottle gourd as they say in English) in a dal and had my husband eat it with relish. But mainly because I knew all of you are missing me. I can get quite self-praising (is that the word?) at times, as you can see.
Is your husband a fussy eater? Husband species are meant to be fussy, I believe. I had chanced upon a wonderful methi matar malai recipe on the net and also had methi at home. But I didn’t have enough time to prepare it, starting with separating the methi leaves. I saw a nice, small and tender lauki at Nilgiris’ newly started vegetable section and I knew I had to buy it. I was looking for some vegetable which will be fast to cut and this lauki fit the bill and making it tempting was the fact that it was so tender and without seeds. I don’t like lauki seeds. That is not being fussy. Ok?
But the problem was making my husband eat lauki. I thought of mixing it in dal. He really likes dal. I went home. Took out a cup of toor dal, then I thought let me mix in a bit of masoor, then a bit of chana dal and then yellow moong dal. The dals look lovely and specially the masoor adding orange to yellow. Washed them and kept it soaking in water. Ok, now I am telling you the recipe so that you can get your husbands to eat lauki ;)
See, now I consider myself a recipe guru. Yes, the continuation of the self-praising phase.
I cut the lauki into small pieces and added to the dal(s) and cooked it in pressure cooker along with salt till it gets mushy. You can see the lauki pieces among the dal if you look hard. Till then I put rice to cook and went about tackling the methi which needed immediate attention. Till the dal cooked, I got all the methi leaves in Ziploc bag and hoped they will stay till I get time to cook them. I also got 2 small onions, 3 garlic cloves, 2 green chillies and 3 small tomatoes cut into small pieces. Now take a kadhai and put some oil, add mustard seeds and jeera and hing. Add the onions, garlic and chillies.
When onions are done, add tomatoes and haldi and let it cook till tomatoes are almost mashed. Add this to the cooker. I did this coz adding the dal to kadhai was more difficult :)
Add everest garam masala, little bit of sugar and chopped coriander. Let it boil. This is quite thick in consistency. We had it with paratha and curd and rice. If you are wondering, where did the parathas came from, well, I had the dough ready in the fridge and my experience says old dough makes better roti/paratha. Maybe its just one of my weird beliefs.
For once, I got a good result from my cooking experiments.
Similar thing can be done to brinjal, karela. But this will be more of sambar style with tamarind, jaggery and maybe sambar masala instead of garam masala. I am yet to try it with my husband. This will be more challenging than the lauki.
Is your husband a fussy eater? Husband species are meant to be fussy, I believe. I had chanced upon a wonderful methi matar malai recipe on the net and also had methi at home. But I didn’t have enough time to prepare it, starting with separating the methi leaves. I saw a nice, small and tender lauki at Nilgiris’ newly started vegetable section and I knew I had to buy it. I was looking for some vegetable which will be fast to cut and this lauki fit the bill and making it tempting was the fact that it was so tender and without seeds. I don’t like lauki seeds. That is not being fussy. Ok?
But the problem was making my husband eat lauki. I thought of mixing it in dal. He really likes dal. I went home. Took out a cup of toor dal, then I thought let me mix in a bit of masoor, then a bit of chana dal and then yellow moong dal. The dals look lovely and specially the masoor adding orange to yellow. Washed them and kept it soaking in water. Ok, now I am telling you the recipe so that you can get your husbands to eat lauki ;)
See, now I consider myself a recipe guru. Yes, the continuation of the self-praising phase.
I cut the lauki into small pieces and added to the dal(s) and cooked it in pressure cooker along with salt till it gets mushy. You can see the lauki pieces among the dal if you look hard. Till then I put rice to cook and went about tackling the methi which needed immediate attention. Till the dal cooked, I got all the methi leaves in Ziploc bag and hoped they will stay till I get time to cook them. I also got 2 small onions, 3 garlic cloves, 2 green chillies and 3 small tomatoes cut into small pieces. Now take a kadhai and put some oil, add mustard seeds and jeera and hing. Add the onions, garlic and chillies.
When onions are done, add tomatoes and haldi and let it cook till tomatoes are almost mashed. Add this to the cooker. I did this coz adding the dal to kadhai was more difficult :)
Add everest garam masala, little bit of sugar and chopped coriander. Let it boil. This is quite thick in consistency. We had it with paratha and curd and rice. If you are wondering, where did the parathas came from, well, I had the dough ready in the fridge and my experience says old dough makes better roti/paratha. Maybe its just one of my weird beliefs.
For once, I got a good result from my cooking experiments.
Similar thing can be done to brinjal, karela. But this will be more of sambar style with tamarind, jaggery and maybe sambar masala instead of garam masala. I am yet to try it with my husband. This will be more challenging than the lauki.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Babies
This weekend, I happened to meet some babies. On Friday evening, I went to see my friend’s baby who is three and a half months old. On Saturday, we went to my cousin sister's house. She has a 10 month old baby. Everyone thinks babies cute. Even I think so, but only if they are other's babies. These little creatures are good to see from far but I am not sure if I would want them in my close vicinity. Babies are cute but only till they don’t start crying, till they don’t start peeing and till their moms are around. Left alone with a baby, I don’t know what I would do. You might think what kind of a girl wouldn’t want babies? Before marriage, I didn’t have any views on babies. At that time, I thought of it as a natural phenomenon -> "All married people have babies."But now, I am not able to figure out why people wish to have babies in the first place. My husband says, people feel it as a miracle that a woman can create a new life and bring it to this world. But I fail to see the miracle part of it. I mean, yes, it might seem like a miracle to someone ignorant but we all know the science behind it. right? And after all, this world is not such a good place to feel proud about bringing someone else also to suffer in it. My husband says, children would be company for old age. We would have somebody for support. This seems good. But I am not sure how much will the next gen support their parents. Somehow I feel pretty sure; they would run away in their teenage, never feeling a thing for their parents. We should be prepared for the worst. Even if by luck, they turn out to be good. Good is again relative, few years ago, marrying someone not selected by your parents was considered bad, now it is ok. Who knows few years later, living with parents might not be considered ‘good’. Why would people want to live their entire lives just for their children so that they can leave them in their old age? Once people have children, I have seen them living, thinking only about the children, never about themselves. I would rather live my life for myself and spend all my money on myself. Yes, I know I am selfish.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Do software engineers love their jobs?
Well, I think they don’t. I haven’t come across a single software engineer who is 'very' happy with his job. May be I know only these types of software engineers! If there is a sense of accomplishment by doing a job, maybe that would result in job satisfaction. My cousin sister is doing her post-graduation in Gynecology. Once she told me that the job is extremely hectic with work hours going up to 36 hrs at a stretch but still when she comes home at the end of the day, she feels very happy and satisfied. Maybe she saved some lives, brought some little ones to this earth. That looks exciting. But as they say, the grass is always greener on the other side. If by chance, a doctor is not able to save a life, may not even be his fault, I can’t imagine what a dreadful feeling that would be. Thank God, I am not a doctor. It is too scary to deal with life and death.But I can’t bring myself to say "Thank God, I am a software engineer" either. It is a much safer profession compared to doctors. Study less, Earn faster. What more can I ask for? Looks like something is missing or maybe everything is missing. Every morning when I wake up, the first thing that comes to my mind, "What day is it today?" Oh no, it’s a Wednesday. 3 more office days before I get a break. Everyday I get up waiting for Saturday to come.
The kind of excitement that can be expected at a typical software job is :
a. Getting your code to work
b. Completing your job before expected/in a new (better) way than usual.
Oh yes, then there is the excitement of getting the salary revision letters. That is exactly what I come to office for. I like the independence money gives. It’s nice to have your own money and yet have your husband take care of most of the expenses.
Sometimes I think I should consider change of profession. But then, there is nothing I know other than sitting in an air-conditioned office and typing away at the keyboard. Sometimes, I think I experience a lot more stress than my colleagues do, in similar situations.Learning something new causes a lot of stress for me and this is what every software engineer has to continue doing all his life.
Have you ever wondered why are so many people living on this earth? Hey...I have started going on a different track but its ok, after all, it’s my blog. Some people have said that everyone comes to life with a purpose. Well, what's the population of this earth? And if we consider insects, fish and all living creatures, are there really so many purposes to live? I have no idea why I am living. Well, my husband will have a tough time if I am not living. If that's my purpose then why do I have to work, I mean go to office. If I don’t go to office, I will get bored at home. And of course, I won’t get money. I can always get it from my husband but it’s not the same. Hmm...Looks like money is the only reason I come to office. Then whether I like it or not, I have to come to work, and actually do some work with the hope that it might help somebody. And also with the hope that it doesn’t make life tougher for someone else ;)
The kind of excitement that can be expected at a typical software job is :
a. Getting your code to work
b. Completing your job before expected/in a new (better) way than usual.
Oh yes, then there is the excitement of getting the salary revision letters. That is exactly what I come to office for. I like the independence money gives. It’s nice to have your own money and yet have your husband take care of most of the expenses.
Sometimes I think I should consider change of profession. But then, there is nothing I know other than sitting in an air-conditioned office and typing away at the keyboard. Sometimes, I think I experience a lot more stress than my colleagues do, in similar situations.Learning something new causes a lot of stress for me and this is what every software engineer has to continue doing all his life.
Have you ever wondered why are so many people living on this earth? Hey...I have started going on a different track but its ok, after all, it’s my blog. Some people have said that everyone comes to life with a purpose. Well, what's the population of this earth? And if we consider insects, fish and all living creatures, are there really so many purposes to live? I have no idea why I am living. Well, my husband will have a tough time if I am not living. If that's my purpose then why do I have to work, I mean go to office. If I don’t go to office, I will get bored at home. And of course, I won’t get money. I can always get it from my husband but it’s not the same. Hmm...Looks like money is the only reason I come to office. Then whether I like it or not, I have to come to work, and actually do some work with the hope that it might help somebody. And also with the hope that it doesn’t make life tougher for someone else ;)
Monday, February 5, 2007
Time flies or does it?!! To-do task lists
Sometimes I wonder why I don’t ever get time to do the things I have been intending or resolving to do from quite sometime. Does time fly? Sometimes I think it does, especially on weekends :). Before you know it, it is Sunday evening and you start getting Monday morning blues. But then if I think some more (something I rarely do), I think time doesn’t fly, I let it fly. Now today is Monday and I think the weekend got over a bit too fast but if you ask me what I did on the weekend, well, that’s a tricky question ;) Hmm.....coming to it...I am glad at least 2 tasks could be finally done. One was getting the gas connection transferred from my friend. Oh well…this task was not done completely coz we didn’t take the gas regulator with us. But still, a good start! Hopefully, next weekend will see the end of this task from the to-do list. The other was to get my husband buy some trousers for him. He wants to wait till all his trousers are torn or damaged to buy new ones. At least this task is off the to-do list. But alas, the to-do list keeps growing at a faster pace than our ability to finish it.
There are some tasks which require taking decisions. These are among the difficult to complete tasks and remain on to-do lists for ever. There are some other types of tasks which are among the front-runners for the oldest members on to-do lists like studying, tasks involving going to govt. offices :) Discussing about future plans is one another task that never really takes off leave alone reaching a conclusion.
Looks like the unfinished tasks are due to lack of willingness to complete them. Brings me to the saying "Donkey can be brought near water but can’t be forced to drink it". Am I calling myself a donkey? That’s ok but completely unacceptable if others call me a donkey.
There are some tasks which require taking decisions. These are among the difficult to complete tasks and remain on to-do lists for ever. There are some other types of tasks which are among the front-runners for the oldest members on to-do lists like studying, tasks involving going to govt. offices :) Discussing about future plans is one another task that never really takes off leave alone reaching a conclusion.
Looks like the unfinished tasks are due to lack of willingness to complete them. Brings me to the saying "Donkey can be brought near water but can’t be forced to drink it". Am I calling myself a donkey? That’s ok but completely unacceptable if others call me a donkey.
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