Bus or plane?

Some people love to travel. I like visiting to places, but I hate the travel part of it. Sometimes I just hope we could just disappear from one place and land in any place of our will in seconds.

Everytime, there is an international travel more than 8 hrs, after you tell your itenary to people, they empathize with you that, it’s a long travel. I was just wondering, will the same people have the same feeling when you are travelling within the country. Sometimes we travel nearly for 10 hrs, in the bus. There is no food available, no restrooms or washrooms available. We are on the seat continuously for these 10 hrs. Sometimes people travel this distance every fortnight. They don’t get the same empathy which is given to people who travel the same number of hours in a plane, with food and restrooms.

Well, we have to be thankful everytime our journey is comfortable. That way our visit to any place will just get better.

Live to Ride, Ride to Live

"Live to Ride and Ride to Live" - is G's favorite slogan. He has it printed on one of his T-shirts too. G is crazy about bikes like I have mentioned it here.


Lot of people dream of sitting on a Harley Davidson, let alone go on a ride. But I am so proud of G, I have had thrice the pleasure of going on a ride on the Harley Davidson....





In India, G has a bullet - Thunderbird.When I was a kid, I dint like bullet since it made lot of noise. Little did I know then, that its the power thats making the noise. Again, thanks to G, that I learnt a lot about bikes. Ofcourse, if it goes too technical, I still dont understand.

But what matters is, G is happy that I love to be his pillion rider. And, I love it that he likes to drive around with me on this powerful motorcycle.

It seems like we are made for each other :)

Judge me or no?

Relatives are by chance and friends are by Choice, choose your friends correctly.
This was a sentence I had read in so many scrapbooks.

There was a time, when we had a lot of innocent friendships. It didn’t matter what we could do for each other. No matter, what we thought of each other. This was the time where we grew up with each other. We could tell each other anything, and our friendship would just remain the same or get even better.

As years passed by, we started making thoughtful friendship. We would observe and then try to be friends with people who seemed to have similar interests. As the friendship thickened, we helped each other to become better people. These were the friends, who would celebrate with us when we achieved something, who were our best critics when we did something wrong.

As we move on further in life, we try to analyze people and then want to make a friend. By now, we have grown so much that it becomes difficult for us to take any negative comments from anybody. We assume that people judge us and to be on the safer side, we befriend those whom we feel don’t judge us. But, can anybody be non judgmental?

Ofcourse, not everybody will tell you what they feel about you. Whether somebody is judgmental or not, how would we ever know?

Is it better to have a friend who is not judgmental, but doesn’t even tell what they think about you or is it better to have a friend who is true to you?

Same Same but Different

I used to be a good student in school. But, mom thought it would be better if I spent more time in my studies. I was always a night person. I would study in the nights, but could never read a line in the mornings. TV was my favorite passtime. Even now, on the internet I am on youtube watching something.

Few years back, the conversation would be
Mom : ಓದ್ಕೋ ಹೋಗೆ (Go and read)
Me : Hmm… ಈ break (After the break)
Mom : TV Connection ತೆಗೆಸ್ಬಿಡ್ತೀನಿ (Will take off the TV connection)
Me : (Sadly goes to the room).

Recently this conversation happened

G : Packing ಮಾಡೇ (Do the packing)
Me : Hmm.. ನಾಳೆ ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ (will do tomorrow)
G: Internet connection ತೆಗೆಸ್ಬಿಡ್ತೀನಿ (will take off the internet connection
Me: (Now that I have a iphone) No problem, I have 3G now :)

Blogging

I had no idea about blogging, before a friend introduced me to this virtual world. This is my journey of blogging. I was excited that there is a place on the internet, for the stuff I write. As days passed by, I would write about trivial incidents, some good thoughts, some travelogues. There was even a time where I would write some mundane things too. Later, I began to be discreet about some feelings.

Initially I sent the link to a few friends and I would insist G, that he read my blog and give his opinion. He was the biggest critic. It was always about grammar and spellings. It was never about my ideas or my opinions. Once I used a friend's name, and I got a big lecture, as to how I am not supposed to reveal anything on the internet. After this, I stopped insisting that he read my blogs, as I never got any word of encouragement from him.

G loves my writing, but on the internet, he was not very comfortable about it. We even had a few tiffs about this, but I was persistent and dint give up blogging. Somehow, even though we have our opinions on each other’s doings, we still don’t give up some things, just because we love each other. If, at that time I had given up blogging, I am sure nothing path breaking was missed, but I would have lost my space and that’s something which I am proud of. I am no big writer. I might just have a couple of readers, but the best part here is, I don’t write for anybody else. I am the person who is most eager to see a new post coming up on my blog.

Coming back to G. As I mentioned earlier, I stopped irritating G to read my blogs. One fine day, I told him some incident and he said, I read that in your blog. I was surprised and happy (thought I was calm outside). My mind was celebrating inside and outside I was this calm and satisfied person. But, he still did not like that I was on the internet. So, I decided never to ask him if he ever reads or not.

Last year, a few friends of his, said they read my blog. I was happy to know that. In a way I felt sad that, other than my husband, everybody else who reads my blog is appreciative of it in one way or other. I still did not ask for his opinion. Now, he reads it every now and then. Infact, when I wanted to change the look of the blog, he even offered to help me. Sometimes to irritate me, he opens the blog in front of me and starts reading it aloud. Even today all he does is point out grammatical and spelling mistakes. I have come to terms with this. Bottom line is he reads it and I am happy about it. I hope someday you actually tell me what you think about my blog.

So G, all I want to say is I Love You and thank you for being such a loving husband. This just goes to prove that, whether you are poles apart in your thinking or you are on the same page, love just makes life beautiful.

Home Alone

Alisha, smart and brave kid, just moved to Bangalore with her parents and kid brother. She was pretty good in her studies. Since they had just moved to Bangalore, they were staying in a rented outhouse. It was a single bedroom house, but they could easily manage. There was a very big park in front of the house and Alisha went there daily to play with her friends. There was a old man in the park, none of them liked him. He was a little weird, but Alisha and her friends always ignored him.

One evening, her kid brother fell ill and was to be taken to a doctor. Her mom and dad wanted Alisha to accompany them. But she had to prove to them that she was a big kid now and that she could stay alone for a couple of hours. So her parents, left her in the house, ofcourse they told the owner who stayed right in front of the house.

Half an hour and Alisha sincerely was doing her homework. She heard the sound of their gate. She wondered that it was too early for her parents to come back from the doctor. She waited for some time. She heard weird sound, she could see from the translucent window. She saw a white shirt. She remembered her dad wearing a grey one when he left. Also, there was no knock on the door, so, it couldn’t be her parents. Now the height where she saw the shirt resembled the old man’s height. She couldn’t imagine why the old man was here. What the hell was he doing at the window? She dint know if she could muster the courage to open the window and peep outside. But she was getting terrified from what she saw outside. Slowly she moved to the kitchen, and after some time began crying. She couldn’t understand why the old man was following her, she never even gave him a disgusting look at the park, unlike her friends.

Lucky for her, the landlady happened to hear her crying and came to the kitchen window. Alisha was so relieved to see a familiar face, she told the owner lady, that somebody was at the door. Finally, when she came there, all she found was a white shirt hanging on the clothes line. Alisha couldn’t believe that inspite of being a brave girl, she was fooled by this. Within half an hour, her parents came back.

Everybody had a good laugh at this. But for Alisha, it was a life changing experience. After this, she was never scared of living alone in the house.

Hindustan

I was excited to go back home after an year. The flight to Frankfurt was packed. I was just getting comfortable in my seat, a man in my adjacent seat, smiled. I returned the smile. We started talking and then he just popped this question. I don’t remember what the conversation was about, but this question has just made a place in my heart. The man was originally from Karachi, Pakistan, who was settled in US. He spoke pretty good Hindi. Infact, until he told me, I assumed he was from Northern part of India.

The question he asked me was – “Aap Hindustan se hain?”

I was shocked at this question. I have been asked several times if I was from India, but never been asked if I was from Hindustan. I don’t know why, but this question just added to my excitement.

Its been more than 2 years since this incident happened. But this part of our conversation has been etched in my mind.

Happy Diwali 2009

Deepavali or Diwali, is the festival of lights. It’s a time to wish our loved ones and ones around us for prosperity. Its time to clean up the house and mind to throw away all the dirt. Its time to burst the crackers and celebrate. Well, this time we dint get to burst any crackers, but we did manage to do the rest of it.



This was our first Diwali together. Last year, we were in different places, so this one was really special for us.

Saturday morning, started with a small Pooja, and an early brunch. Initially, we thought of going for a movie, we took a small nap instead. Evening was supposed to be a visit to the temple for a view of fireworks and then a potluck dinner at a friend’s place. We had decided on taking bisibele bhat for the dinner, so after our tea, G started on that. Around 8.30 we started for fireworks in the SwamiNarayan Temple. Well, by the time we reached near the temple, the fireworks were nearly over. So we headed back, so that we could have dinner. Since it was a potluck, we had lots of stuff to eat. There were so many sweets, rotis, dum aaloo, mix veg, gajar halwa, bisibelebhat. We were back home by 12.30 AM.



Sunday wasn’t a busy day, we just went for a movie and then dinner, with friends.
Monday, we had invited friends over for dinner. Its always a nice feeling to have people over for dinner. Also, decorating the house on these special occassions has always been my passion. Earlier, mom and I, would get new floating candles, new sheets for the diwan, new cusion covers for the sofa. It would just give a fresh look to the house. Well, I plan to do a lot of these things, but for this time, I got a lot of candles and flowers and tried to decorate a little bit.



The dinner was good too. Although this time I made limited quantity, as everytime I would have lot of food left over. But I must say, I was satisfied with the taste and so was G, I think our friends were too. I made vegetable cutlets, poori, mutter paneer, vegetable rice. G made awesome fruitsalad custard. Since it was a weekday, we had to wrap up the get together pretty early.



I must say I will cherish our first Diwali forever.

Sambar, Rice, and Spoon

Cookery shows have been my favorite since I was in school. Although at those times I used to tell my mom to make all those dishes. Recently, I have made some stuff, following these shows. It's kind of fun. Once in a while, I even see those clips, where I already know how to make the dish. I do this, just so that, I can see some difference and try it out.

So, I was watching this sambar recipe. Well, incidently, I know to make sambar, with the powder (which mom/M-I-L make) or ones where we grind the powder. Now, anytime anybody asks me, how do you make sambar? there is no single recipe. Every house, mind you, not every community or every caste, but every house has its own taste of sambar. The sambar powder mom makes is different from what my M-I-L makes, and who knows, someday, I might have my own recipe(thats in the far future). So, I just tell them the basic recipe if they already have a powder.

Now coming back to the show, the chef prepared the sambar, and for the taste, he mixed it with rice and started eating it. He was eating with spoon. As he ate 2-3 spoons, he kept on thinking what was missing, and then he realized, it was the spoon.
He makes this statement " Sambar, Rice, and Spoon, never go together". I was laughing out loud when I heard this. I have heard this a lot of times since my childhood "Who eats Sambar Rice with spoon?? " and sometimes its totally true. Atleast at home, most of us grew up eating our food using our hands without spoons. Exam times, study times were different when we would have the liberty to use spoons, but otherwise it was always hands.

Infact, until I had a lot of north Indian friends, I dint even seem to notice. Well I have seen them using spoon for a dosa. I have never understood that part. My roommate was one such girl. She used to make the dosa piece into a cone and put in sambar using a spoon and then eat. I would lose interest in eating dosa in such a way. Some of us even tried to tell her, how we eat it, but i guess she never left her comfort zone.

Well, all you people who feel eating rice and sambar using your hands is weird, let me tell you its not. Infact, using the spoon for this very reason is injustice to rice and sambar :)
Well, on a different note, when I go to Indian restaurants in US, and I happen to eat sambar rice I use the spoon, only because, I am lazy to go and wash my hands in restroom and they dont give a finger bowl here. But at home, it's always my god-made spoon :)

A place of worship or discrimination

You go in with faith and you see discrimination. How would you feel?

Temples are one of those special places, which give a boost to the level of faith in God. This is one place, where people find peace of mind (I somehow dont, but some people I know believe in this).
How does it feel when in such places you see discrimination? We have seen that in so many temples.

Lets take the temples near our homes in India. The purohits give special preference to people who are regulars at the temple. Why?

A few temples, you dont get the theerta (holy water), unless you give the purohits dakshine (offerings)(mentioned about this here). Why corruption in temples?

Then comes Sabarimalai which is the abode of Lord Ayyappa. Girls/Ladies of age group 12-50 arent allowed here. The are so many stories and theories to this. But the same God can be worshipped by all ladies elsewhere. It's only in this place they arent allowed. Why would god discriminate? If he did, wouldn't this rule apply in all the temples?

I wonder if there is a Godess temple, where men aren't allowed!

Well, the reason this post has found a way in my blog is because of a temple I visited a few months back, and came back home angry. Yes, you read it right, ANGRY.

Now, this is the Swami Narayan Temple. It's got beautiful architecture. The moment you enter the temple, you actually dont look for the god, but the architecture. This is the same one as the Akshardham Temple in Delhi. I havent seen this one yet, but have been to 3 of them in US. One in Chicago, other in Atlanta and another in Houston. Below are the pictures of the Houston Swami Narayan Temple.











Beautiful!!! Isn't it?

Well, we were waiting for sometime, so that it would open up for Darshan. As we were waiting, saw a board which meant, Men will stand in front and Women will stand at the back during Arathi. We were a little confused as to why we would have to stand seperately. Seriously, it was not because we are husband-wife, its not even that we had to stand seperately. But why, guys in the front and ladies at the back.

I am not being a feminist here, even if it was the other way around, I would have asked this same question. Why, in the name of Godm are you doing this discrimination? Its nothing to do with equality or anything else. It's plain faith. A friend of ours was sitting in the front, and she was asked to vacate that place, as the guys were to stand there. What kind of rule is this?

We scream our hearts out in the name of racial discrimination, we shout so much for equality. But, when people do such things in the name of God, we just sit, and watch. I, felt ashamed that day, as i was silent and didn't question anybody. I wouldn't blame the men for this. Women have accepted this, and thats why its continued. We keep quiet, just coz its in a temple. And since, we are taught from childhood, we shouldn't question certain things related to god, we don't question such discrimination.

Aren't we all hypocrytes? We preach, everybody is equal in God's eyes. And then we do something shameful as this. Are we not responsible for such deeds???

Disclaimer : I have no idea why its done like this. If anybody believes that its right and have good reasons for it... Good for you. I still dont think its the right thing to do.

Routines or Memories

We stayed in Mysore for a few months after our wedding... These months were when we were always together except office, and there were times when I used to steal my moments from our time.
I always used to wake up G by 6, asking him to unlock the gates. He would get so furious, and most of the times I would end up doing it at 6.30, then getting the milk and paper from the door. I was always the first one to read the newspaper. It was fun. I used to read the sections which interested me and watch the milk from boiling over simultaneously. Later when G started to read the paper and our conversation would go like this.

Me(giving the cup of coffee to him): Oh! did u see this happened???
G : I just opened the paper
Me : Oh ok...
G (reading silently and sipping his coffee)
Me : What do you want for breakfast
G : Anything will do
Me: What do I pack for lunch
G: Whatever is convinient to you
Me: You never help me decide all this... Now, are you done with reading, go take bath. blah......blah....blah.....
G: I am still reading
Me ( banging whatever is in my hand) : Fine, I'll go, you watch while the maid is cleaning... (murmuring some other stuff). Fill water in thr filter, clean your cup
G: Hmm...

Me(coming out of bath): You are still drinking coffee and reading paper, you dint fill water, u dint do this.. you dint do that.. I have to do everything here. I am not going to fill water in the filter, thats your part.
G: I know baby... I'll do it.. Relax...

In the evening, once home, we would decide what we want to see on TV. We had the Dish network... yeah yeah... dish Karo Wish Karo... Yeah right!!! You wish#$@

G: Do you want to see Star Movies
Me : Naah!! I want to see the dance show
G: Thats boring, lets watch the Bruce Lee
Me: Noooooooooooooooo
G: Come on its fun
Me: Dance show...
G: I cant watch a dance show
Me: I cant stand Bruce Lee
G: Ok.. let me take out the set of DVDs
Me: No English movie (come on they were all action movies... bruce lee kinds)
G: Well no hindi movie either (as if he had any)
Me: Ok lets watch animation.

And so we did, after much discussions we used to watch movies which both of us could manage to watch.

Later G would do his part of the chores. I would think I am just wasting my energy reminding him. But then, if any of this dint happen on any day, I would feel something missing. I dont if G ever felt like it. But I am sure he loves those days too.

I loved the way, we had started to build our sweet little world. It surely wasnt perfect. But I loved it. It was ours, just ours.

Things have changed now, we have understood each other better. We yell a lot less at each other, so many times things get done without saying much to each other. I think this is just another phase of life, where we just grow together. We even sit and watch programmes together, I still dont like the bruce lee movies. I just go, do the kitchen chores or read a book or just lie down on his lap when he his watching this. As per my programmes, I make sure I am done with them before he comes home.

But I just miss those wonderful times we had in our home. I know they are only memories now. We will never get back those days back, but, I surely hope, we will build a lot of new memories which we will cherish all our life.

Austin Trip

Austin, capital of Texas is 160-170 miles from Houston. This place was one of the first trips we took after I came to Houston. We went there with friends. It was a 3 hr drive, we reached there a little beyond lunch time. So we just stopped at a place and had bisibele bhat, sabudana khichidi, pickles and papads.











We then headed towards Lake Travis. The plan was to rent a boat and have some fun time. Since we reached late, we couldnt get the speed boat, but we did get a pontoon boat. We had an hr till we could get this boat. So few of us took ride on the jet ski or wave runners. It was fun. But, it was too hot.




Finally, when we got on to the boat, we sat in the shade for a while, just roaming around the lake... Riding this doesnt need much of training, so all of us tried to ride the boat and it was complete entertainment. We spent nearly an hour in the lake with boat just roaming on the lake...









We then left to Austin Capitol. Well, I wouldnt say it was as good as the one in Washington DC, but it was amazing in its own way. We just did a round of this, took a couple of pictures, then headed for dinner and then back home.








This was a trip to be cherished forever.

Your money, my money, whose money is it anyway??

We were discussing about a new hindi movie, how the guy sees 12 girls in 6 days and decides to marry one of them in 10 days. Its a story very near to what happens these days. The guy comes to India for vacation, sees a couple of girls and then marries.Well, as the discussion went on, we went to to tell a few stories which we had heard. Then came one story, there is a working couple, the girl's family needed some money and the guy asked why she was sending money to her parents. Few months back, when I was with roomies we had a similar discussion.

One girl said, she should have told him that its none of his business. I would have vouched for this, if I wasnt married and dint know what it meant to be married. I am not trying to say what anybody said was wrong. I am just trying to tell that, certain problems dont have clear cut solutions. Also, the way you look at things might change after you are married. Well, if people claim that they know how things change once you are married, or who say "I have lot of married friends and I know how they think". Trust me, you can only see the surface of whats between them. However good or bad the relationship seems, its only the surface. Its obvious the couple dont tell you their best or worst times. Like any thing else in this world, you have to experience this, to know it. There are certain things which we pledge not to change in our lives, but we do later, not due to the pressure, just because the situation is such, and we want to do it for our loved one.

There is a very popular saying in which it seems Girls say to the husband - "Your money is my money, my money is my money". Well whoever said this, I have one question for you. What happened to all that "women are equal to men"? First thing, if ladies want to spend the money on their family, go ahead, there is nothing wrong, but there is nothing wrong in discussing this with your partner. If you feel thats wrong, then stop checking your partner's bank balance Its none of your business too. Isn't it unfair on the guy, that he has to account for everything and ladies shouldn't be questioned. Ofcourse I do agree in our society guys are not questioned for a lot of things, but we are, so ladies also shouldnt have these obstacles or vice versa. I agree to that too. Lets do something, were both can come to agreeable terms.

Ofcourse, all the discussion can happen only if the guy is understanding enough. If, he is being a nut case and denying it, then you can think of different solution. But on the first place, before marraige did both of them discuss on this aspect. These days, be it love or arranged, girl and guy usually get a chance to talk to each other. If not personally, they atleast interact through other media. So, instead of asking which colour they like, or what is the favourite vacation spot, can't both of them discuss topics like these, which matter more. Wont this help you in choosing your life partner than the colour or vacation spot. I agree that you cant start off with such things. But once you reach a comfort zone, cant these be discussed? There are a lot of things which cant be discussed, since we can never anticipate what problems we might face. But whatever comes to your mind at that point of time, which is practical.

Today, most of the girls are financially independent. But when you are getting married, are you not committing yourself to your life partner. We still expect the girl to do the household work, along with careers. We fight for this, saying guys also need to participate. Some guys might claim that its not their part and that in the rules of marraige (if any), girls do this work. We girls, protest and some times get it our way, where there is distribution of work. Inspite of this, why do some of us still think that guys should provide. Is this not hypocrisy? Shouldnt this relationship inspite of financial independence, have the emotional dependency.
G always says there is always a difference between independence and freedom. We need to realize this difference.

Coming back to finance. This is my funda is "Your money is our money and my money is also our money".

Its said that Love is magic. Its also said "Falling in love is very easy. Staying in love is difficult". Getting into the wedlock is easier, staying in the marraiges is a 24*7 occupation. I may not have decades of experience in this, but half a decade of commitment and an year + of marraige has taught me this. And it takes a couple to keep this going. So, its better to sort this financial issue as early as possible. Comeon, dont you have other problems to work on... Like who's gonna ccok today :)

To eat or not to eat

I dont remember a time when I have liked Cauliflower. Sometime when I was young, I associated this vegetable with human brain. I still dont know why, but after that, I hav never ever liked anything made of this vegetable. I would rather eat plain rice, chapati with ketchup instead of Gobi sabzi. My mom tried several tricks so that I could eat this. But the moment I saw this vegetable in any dish, I used to throw a tantrum and never ate it.

Years later, once when mom tried Gobi Paratha, I liked this vegetable a little bit. Ofcourse, this was because, the vegetable was kinda mashed and I couldnt see the florets. Then one day we went to one of the fast food joints (The shanti sagar types). We had gobi manchurian as an appetizer. I tasted one, with reluctance and then there is no looking back. Gobi manchurian is my favorite appetizer ever.

It seems strange that I still hate anything else made of this vegetable, unless it very finely chopped and I cant see the florets. But Gobi manchurian, I can have it any time of the day. Its very sad that, most of the Indian restaurants in US, dont serve this. In India, we categorize this in chinese dishes. But I have never seen it in Chinese menu either. May be it completely Indian and just because we have Soy Sauce, we call it Indo-Chinese. Anyway, for all I care, I love this and was missing it a lot in US.

Since I am on the cooking spree, I tried this at home. And I must say, it was awesome, it was 99% like the ones we get in India...

Here's a pic of what we ate. G loved it. We finished the whole plate in a few minutes.

Poori

Pooris were our favourite when we were kids. We could gobble up the hot pooris anytime of the day. Those were the days, when people were not obsessed with fat-nonfat, oooo will I become fat sort of things.

Mom used to make excellent round and fluffy pooris. I used to love bursting the those. We would have it with Chole, Rajma, Sagu,Aaloo sabji. There were times when we had it with cabbage, beetroot sabjis too. Mom realized that she could get us to eat vegetables which we dint like with pooris. She then started making palak and beetroot, green pooris, red pooris so yummy and healthy too.

Well, it had been days since we ate pooris. I was trying out some new curry for chapatis. And then thought, why not make pooris instead. So this became our lunch for the day.

Poori and Pitla.



Pitla it seems is a Maharashtrian dish. Its made of Chickplea flour,onion, tomatoes and spices. Seems, its usually eaten with Bhakri.

Well I just made a poori-pitla combination and it tastes yummy :)

Hooked.. booked.. cooked

I happened to see a programe "First Ladies". Its all about the wives of famous people. Anyway, in this show, there is a section "HOOKED BOOKED and COOKED".

Now I can understand what HOOKED means, probably who proposed whom... I didnt understand what BOOKED means...
Finally, whos' getting COOKED. Well, I think in any marraige, it takes both of them as to how the life goes on... So both of them get cooked. And I must say, as time goes, and cooking is on, there is a fanatastic aroma and an awesome taste. The same way, once the couple are cooked with spices of life, the relationship just gets better and better.

Well, it takes both the partners for a successful marraige. HOOKED, BOOKED or COOKED, as long as both of them work on it, that is all matters.

Cooking expeditions...

When I first came to US all I knew was to cook some basic stuff. There was lot of work pressure those days. So cooking time was like relaxing time. I used to call Mom and ask for new reciepes. Slowly I learnt more about cooking. There were times when the food used to be a little messed up. The saviour would again be mom. I would tell her the problem, and she would give me a solution. This way, I learnt some tricks and tips too.

Recently, I developed this interest of trying new reciepes again. So, I tried to make some Khandvi 2-3 weeks back. It was pretty simple to make, but only problem I had was to flatten it. I succeded to some extent, and it was tasty. To add in my touch, I sprinked some sprouted green moong. We enjoyed a nice evening snack :)

Krishna nee Begane Baaro

Krishna Janamashtmi has always been my favorite festival since the time I have known myself. This is one day in the whole year, where I can sacrifice food and even water until dinner time. Last year we were in India for this festival. At G's place its not celebrated at a grand scale. The previous night G dropped me to mom's house and the next day, it was celebrated at the usual grand scale.

At home its usually celebrated like this. This pic was taken in 2005, the first year I missed the celebrations.

This year, I wanted to celebrate it with as much resources available here. And it was not bad at all. We set up the mantapa, decorated with flowers and fruits.


I made doodh peda, coconut burfi and kachoris for the pooja.


We did the panchamrutha abhisheka and then the pooja.


On the whole we had a nice pooja, and I was very happy.




At first, we thought of inviting friends that day for dinner. Since I was busy in the morning, preparing the sweets and making the other decorations, we thought it would be better to invite the next day.
The next day we had friends for dinner. It was complete fun. I had made vegetable puff, paneer-cucumber-tomato salad, bisibelebhat, veg-tofu fried rice, puliogre. And, I hope all of them enjoyed the dinner.We played UNO (card game). After dinner, we played Dumb Charades. All of us had nice fun. After the tiresome, Friday and Saturday, we had quite a relaxing Sunday, and we ended our weekend with a movie.

Koi roko na

This song was playing in the background, and I was telling this story to G, the nth time.

Its still so fresh in my mind...

Golden days :)

Aane waala pal.. jaane waala hai

Aane waala pal.. jaane waala hai.. hosake to isme...

This is a very famous song from Golmaal (1979)


The movie itself is awesome. Its entertaining till the end, and I have watched this multiple times
This is the title song and I used to love this song Golmaal hai


12 years back, I knew the screenplay of this movie. But at that time, I hadnt noticed the aane waala song much, until somebody sang this.

We had been to a Himachal trek when in school. Our camp leader was a very good singer. One evening when all of us were enjoying the camp fire, we all requested him to sing. He announced that he is gonna sing a song from Golmaal, I thought it would be the title song, since it suited the situation etc etc. But then he started singing this. It was awesome listening to the song.

Aane waala pal

The next time I saw the movie, I waited for this song. I realized that somehow i had never noticed this song in the movie.

Sometimes in life there are certain things we never notice, but when someone else recognizes it, thats when we realize, it was there all the while. We just failed to notice it.