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.
Friday, March 30, 2007
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.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
eat happy
Eat Happy - the tag line of a very happy looking eating place called "Mast Kalandar". For some reason I really like this place coz whenever I go there, I never return anything less than ‘happy’J. I remember when the place had newly opened on Bannerghatta road; a very café sort of look with bright colors used everywhere, lot of orange and yellow…the chairs are orange too. It looked like a good place to go to if you want to get into a sunny mood. I hadn’t gone there for a long time as I was not sure about the kind of food there.
I went there for the first time some months ago after I got married and after I was tired of cooking dinner every weekday :). As soon as I entered, I realized it’s a ‘hatke’ (different) place…starting from the menu to the method of ordering. The menu is put up on a colorful wall behind the counter. You don’t get your menu and don’t get to order from table but you do get food served on the table. That was a new one! But the menu is so exciting that it compensates for the inconvenience, if at all you can call it that. There is a parathas section with some interesting parathas called Tom, Dick, Harry or Healthy Sprouts, Cheesy Spring Onion and more… Then there are combos with kulcha or rotis in combination with some sabzi, dal, salad and chutney. Then there is a rice section with the likes of rajma-chawal, kadhi-chawal, biryani. You also have a few starters, few drinks like aam panna, mango lassi and desserts.
As you would have guessed, it is a completely North Indian vegetarian restaurant…one of the few in Bangalore which serve authentic North Indian food at affordable prices. There are times when it’s been a hard day in office or I feel like eating something really nice, I end up coming here. The dal makhni which they serve with most combos is really good. I never had the parathas. I am not much of a paratha fan coz of the oil and ghee layered on it. There are healthy options available too. There is also the saag, makke ki roti combo.
The food served is piping hot and has a very fresh taste. I can go on and on about the food. Before I forget to mention the other good things about the place, let me tell you about them. The place has a friendly feeling with the waiters very good at their work...neither ignoring nor crowding you. There are magazines, newspapers kept there and people spend time here relaxing over a good and healthy meal. You might even be reminded of 'maa ke haath ka khana'. It is an ideal place to go when you want to eat food which has a home cooked taste and at the same time want to go to a proper clean restaurant.
I went there for the first time some months ago after I got married and after I was tired of cooking dinner every weekday :). As soon as I entered, I realized it’s a ‘hatke’ (different) place…starting from the menu to the method of ordering. The menu is put up on a colorful wall behind the counter. You don’t get your menu and don’t get to order from table but you do get food served on the table. That was a new one! But the menu is so exciting that it compensates for the inconvenience, if at all you can call it that. There is a parathas section with some interesting parathas called Tom, Dick, Harry or Healthy Sprouts, Cheesy Spring Onion and more… Then there are combos with kulcha or rotis in combination with some sabzi, dal, salad and chutney. Then there is a rice section with the likes of rajma-chawal, kadhi-chawal, biryani. You also have a few starters, few drinks like aam panna, mango lassi and desserts.
As you would have guessed, it is a completely North Indian vegetarian restaurant…one of the few in Bangalore which serve authentic North Indian food at affordable prices. There are times when it’s been a hard day in office or I feel like eating something really nice, I end up coming here. The dal makhni which they serve with most combos is really good. I never had the parathas. I am not much of a paratha fan coz of the oil and ghee layered on it. There are healthy options available too. There is also the saag, makke ki roti combo.
The food served is piping hot and has a very fresh taste. I can go on and on about the food. Before I forget to mention the other good things about the place, let me tell you about them. The place has a friendly feeling with the waiters very good at their work...neither ignoring nor crowding you. There are magazines, newspapers kept there and people spend time here relaxing over a good and healthy meal. You might even be reminded of 'maa ke haath ka khana'. It is an ideal place to go when you want to eat food which has a home cooked taste and at the same time want to go to a proper clean restaurant.
trip to pondy
It was the Republic Day long weekend. 2 days before the weekend, we started thinking whether we should go somewhere. Deciding now would mean going on the Bullet. And we were quite glad we don’t have other options open. Because the excitement of going to new places on a bike is matched only by few others. Finally, Friday the Republic Day arrived but we were quite lazy to get up early in the morning and so the day went on. By evening I was getting restless and missing what would have been a good trip somewhere. So I started dropping hints that I want to go to Pondicherry. And my intelligent husband picked up the hints and by night after dinner, we decided to start by 5 am and go to Pondicherry.
As always, the alarm went off. I switched it off and went to the bed again. Tried to wake up my husband and went to sleep. But this time, the desire to go was strong and I got up again after half an hour and so did my husband. We did everything starting from packing in a little more than an hour and finally we took off to Pondicherry by 6 am. Petrol and air stop at Hosur and we were on our way to Krishnagiri on a good 4 lane highway. Early morning rides are even great. To see the dawn breaking and the day setting in slowly while we are riding away amidst great looking landscapes is a real pleasure. Took a diversion to NH66 from Krishnagiri. Here the road was not that good. Some potholes surprise you as you go on an ok looking road. Look out for crows sitting on the roads. We were at a considerable speed and few crows were sitting on the road and they flew a bit too late and one of them hit my husband’s hand on the bike's handle. Poor bird broke his wing I suppose. But it was better than hitting our helmets or the brake. After the patch of about 40kms of the 'not so good' road, we were back on smooth roads and the next destination was Thiruvannamalai. We were there by 9:45 and decided to stop and see the temple and also have breakfast. Yes, there isn't any place before this where you can expect a decent breakfast. There is a Reliance A1 plaza after Hosur where you can stop for breakfast. But nothing after that or before Thiruvannamalai.
The temple at Thiruvannamalai is huge and quite nice. It is a huge complex with temples in it and also a pond. There was a small queue and we had to wait for darshan. But the temple can get very crowded if there is some festival related to Lord Shiva or on Fridays. There is an elephant in the temple who blesses people with his trunk. There seemed to be a significance of red color coz most women were wearing red sarees and men wore red kurta and lungi. We went to a nearby restaurant just outside the temple. As soon as we sat, we were given plates of idlis and some sambar. That was the only thing they had at the restaurant. We were hungry and ate the idlis for the first time without a spoon or fork as the restaurant didn't have spoons. By this time it was 11:45. We got back to the Pondicherry road. On the way there is Gingee Fort, some old ruins of a fort. We stopped to take pictures. The fort looked quite good and if it wasn’t for Pondicherry we were tempted to explore it more. But we satisfied ourselves with pictures and went ahead. We were in Pondy on the beach road by 1:30. The view was so great that my husband just parked the bike and without locking it, went to look at the ocean. I took the keys and followed. Clear green-blue water and huge waves hitting the rocks made us forget whatever tiredness we had.
Our landlords in Bangalore are basically from Pondicherry and they were there at that time. We called them up to ask about a good hotel where we can check in. Aunty and Uncle came and took us to Ashram guesthouse but both of the guest houses were full. We tried few more hotels but everything was full. Looked like half of the people from Bangalore and Chennai were in Pondicherry and we were also a day late than the others. Finally all of us went for lunch and after that Uncle gave us his relative's newly constructed house to stay. We went there and slept. In the evening we came to the beach road again. It was full of people, good music and it was very lively. There were "Freedom Jam, No Bread" concerts going on all over the place. We took a stroll on the rocks placed facing the sea. Then we sat on the rocks, listening to the waves. It was heavenly. But the sea doesn’t look so friendly at night. But believe me; you would want to come again and again just to sit there looking at the sea and listening to the waves and letting the ocean breeze run thru your hair. We had dinner and went back to our house (we could call it our house even it was just for a day).
Next day we had breakfast and again went to the beach road to get a morning view of the sea. It was beautiful in the morning too but we couldn’t spend much time there as there were other places to see also. We went to a boat house at Ariankuppam about 7-8 kms from the beach road in Pondy. It is a nice picnic spot. We did pedal boating in the backwaters. Speed boating also available there. Then we took off for Auroville. To reach there we need to go towards the East Coast Road which goes to Chennai. On the way we saw a taxi with Auroville written on it and we thought we will follow it. A little while later I realized that Auroville might have been left behind and the taxi was going elsewhere but the road was so good with the sea on one side that we followed it. The taxi turned down onto a mud road and we could see a beach in the distance. It turned out that the taxi was going to the Pondicherry University guest house and the beach was behind it. But we were not a bit sorry for the wrong route and in fact quite thrilled to see the virgin beach. It was a beach like we hadn't seen before...not even in Goa…pure, clean sand, clear blue water and huge waves. There were crabs on the sand. And nobody except a very few locals on the beach. We went into the water and enjoyed the waves hitting us. It was fun.
Finally we reached Auroville. Unfortunately, Matrimandir which is the major attraction is open only till 12:30 on Sundays. So we couldn't see it. But even otherwise, Auroville is a very peaceful place full of greenery. People from 30 different countries stay here. It is the vision of The Mother and is a township dedicated to experiment in human unity. Go through the site http://www.auroville.org to get details on timings for visiting and to get an idea about Auroville.
There is a cafeteria at Auroville. And I have to mention this. The homemade kulfi which they serve here is something out of this world. Never had a kulfi like that before. It was so soft and tasty...just melts in your mouth. The walnut cake and chocolate brownie are also good. On our way back from Auroville we wanted to see the beach with rocks one last time before we left and so we took that route to reach home.
We left Pondy at around 4 and took a night halt at Thiruvannamalai. The hotel Anurachalam had quite a descent rooms considering the place looked like a village. We set out to have dinner at the restaurant belonging to the same hotel. It was an experience in itself. The waiter, if we can call him that, was scaring us more than serving us. :) He gave us banana leaf and when he came back with dosas, he ordered us to clean the leaf with water. Then he stood just behind our table as if to see how we are eating. And when we gave him money, he said something angrily in Tamil which thankfully we couldn’t understand. We were still hungry but we left from the place. All the restaurants in Thiruvannamalai seem to be serving only idlis and dosas. We went to a more inviting restaurant and it seemed much better compared to the previous experience. We had another dosa there and went back to our room thinking no more dosas for at least a week. I really missed the Bangalore style sambar. The sambar here looked like it didn’t have the sambar masala and had just the dal.
I was fast asleep before 9. My husband was busy watching TV as he got to do so after 2 days.
Next morning we left at 5:30 and were in Bangalore by 9:30 braving the traffic near Electronics city and BTM. It was a great trip and we look forward to our second visit to Pondicherry whenever it will be.
Some Precautions before taking the trip -
1) Avoid going in summer as the weather here is very hot. Even in January. People from Mumbai might be reminded of the weather there :)
2) Book hotel in advance specially if going on a long weekend.
3) There are big mosquitos in the area. So use mosquito repellents.
As always, the alarm went off. I switched it off and went to the bed again. Tried to wake up my husband and went to sleep. But this time, the desire to go was strong and I got up again after half an hour and so did my husband. We did everything starting from packing in a little more than an hour and finally we took off to Pondicherry by 6 am. Petrol and air stop at Hosur and we were on our way to Krishnagiri on a good 4 lane highway. Early morning rides are even great. To see the dawn breaking and the day setting in slowly while we are riding away amidst great looking landscapes is a real pleasure. Took a diversion to NH66 from Krishnagiri. Here the road was not that good. Some potholes surprise you as you go on an ok looking road. Look out for crows sitting on the roads. We were at a considerable speed and few crows were sitting on the road and they flew a bit too late and one of them hit my husband’s hand on the bike's handle. Poor bird broke his wing I suppose. But it was better than hitting our helmets or the brake. After the patch of about 40kms of the 'not so good' road, we were back on smooth roads and the next destination was Thiruvannamalai. We were there by 9:45 and decided to stop and see the temple and also have breakfast. Yes, there isn't any place before this where you can expect a decent breakfast. There is a Reliance A1 plaza after Hosur where you can stop for breakfast. But nothing after that or before Thiruvannamalai.
The temple at Thiruvannamalai is huge and quite nice. It is a huge complex with temples in it and also a pond. There was a small queue and we had to wait for darshan. But the temple can get very crowded if there is some festival related to Lord Shiva or on Fridays. There is an elephant in the temple who blesses people with his trunk. There seemed to be a significance of red color coz most women were wearing red sarees and men wore red kurta and lungi. We went to a nearby restaurant just outside the temple. As soon as we sat, we were given plates of idlis and some sambar. That was the only thing they had at the restaurant. We were hungry and ate the idlis for the first time without a spoon or fork as the restaurant didn't have spoons. By this time it was 11:45. We got back to the Pondicherry road. On the way there is Gingee Fort, some old ruins of a fort. We stopped to take pictures. The fort looked quite good and if it wasn’t for Pondicherry we were tempted to explore it more. But we satisfied ourselves with pictures and went ahead. We were in Pondy on the beach road by 1:30. The view was so great that my husband just parked the bike and without locking it, went to look at the ocean. I took the keys and followed. Clear green-blue water and huge waves hitting the rocks made us forget whatever tiredness we had.
Our landlords in Bangalore are basically from Pondicherry and they were there at that time. We called them up to ask about a good hotel where we can check in. Aunty and Uncle came and took us to Ashram guesthouse but both of the guest houses were full. We tried few more hotels but everything was full. Looked like half of the people from Bangalore and Chennai were in Pondicherry and we were also a day late than the others. Finally all of us went for lunch and after that Uncle gave us his relative's newly constructed house to stay. We went there and slept. In the evening we came to the beach road again. It was full of people, good music and it was very lively. There were "Freedom Jam, No Bread" concerts going on all over the place. We took a stroll on the rocks placed facing the sea. Then we sat on the rocks, listening to the waves. It was heavenly. But the sea doesn’t look so friendly at night. But believe me; you would want to come again and again just to sit there looking at the sea and listening to the waves and letting the ocean breeze run thru your hair. We had dinner and went back to our house (we could call it our house even it was just for a day).
Next day we had breakfast and again went to the beach road to get a morning view of the sea. It was beautiful in the morning too but we couldn’t spend much time there as there were other places to see also. We went to a boat house at Ariankuppam about 7-8 kms from the beach road in Pondy. It is a nice picnic spot. We did pedal boating in the backwaters. Speed boating also available there. Then we took off for Auroville. To reach there we need to go towards the East Coast Road which goes to Chennai. On the way we saw a taxi with Auroville written on it and we thought we will follow it. A little while later I realized that Auroville might have been left behind and the taxi was going elsewhere but the road was so good with the sea on one side that we followed it. The taxi turned down onto a mud road and we could see a beach in the distance. It turned out that the taxi was going to the Pondicherry University guest house and the beach was behind it. But we were not a bit sorry for the wrong route and in fact quite thrilled to see the virgin beach. It was a beach like we hadn't seen before...not even in Goa…pure, clean sand, clear blue water and huge waves. There were crabs on the sand. And nobody except a very few locals on the beach. We went into the water and enjoyed the waves hitting us. It was fun.
Finally we reached Auroville. Unfortunately, Matrimandir which is the major attraction is open only till 12:30 on Sundays. So we couldn't see it. But even otherwise, Auroville is a very peaceful place full of greenery. People from 30 different countries stay here. It is the vision of The Mother and is a township dedicated to experiment in human unity. Go through the site http://www.auroville.org to get details on timings for visiting and to get an idea about Auroville.
There is a cafeteria at Auroville. And I have to mention this. The homemade kulfi which they serve here is something out of this world. Never had a kulfi like that before. It was so soft and tasty...just melts in your mouth. The walnut cake and chocolate brownie are also good. On our way back from Auroville we wanted to see the beach with rocks one last time before we left and so we took that route to reach home.
We left Pondy at around 4 and took a night halt at Thiruvannamalai. The hotel Anurachalam had quite a descent rooms considering the place looked like a village. We set out to have dinner at the restaurant belonging to the same hotel. It was an experience in itself. The waiter, if we can call him that, was scaring us more than serving us. :) He gave us banana leaf and when he came back with dosas, he ordered us to clean the leaf with water. Then he stood just behind our table as if to see how we are eating. And when we gave him money, he said something angrily in Tamil which thankfully we couldn’t understand. We were still hungry but we left from the place. All the restaurants in Thiruvannamalai seem to be serving only idlis and dosas. We went to a more inviting restaurant and it seemed much better compared to the previous experience. We had another dosa there and went back to our room thinking no more dosas for at least a week. I really missed the Bangalore style sambar. The sambar here looked like it didn’t have the sambar masala and had just the dal.
I was fast asleep before 9. My husband was busy watching TV as he got to do so after 2 days.
Next morning we left at 5:30 and were in Bangalore by 9:30 braving the traffic near Electronics city and BTM. It was a great trip and we look forward to our second visit to Pondicherry whenever it will be.
Some Precautions before taking the trip -
1) Avoid going in summer as the weather here is very hot. Even in January. People from Mumbai might be reminded of the weather there :)
2) Book hotel in advance specially if going on a long weekend.
3) There are big mosquitos in the area. So use mosquito repellents.
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