Bhaakri

I made Bhaakri /Jowar roti for the first time !!

Duh... tough job !!!!

Herez for you all to see it :) served with "Paatichya Kandyachi Bhaaji/Spring onion Curry" and "Garlic chutney"

Stuffed Okra / Bharli Bhendi

Ingredients :

Okra/ladies finger
Groundnut powder
Coconut powder
Cumin seed powder
Coriander powder
Curry leaves powder
Garam Masala
Asafoetida (Hing)
Turmeric powder
Cumin Seeds
Lemon Juice
Salt

Procedure :

Wash Okra and wipe it until dry. Roast them slightly for 2 min on low flame.
Slit it vertically but make sure you don’t break it into two halves.

Mix coconut powder, groundnut powder , cumin seed and coriander powder, asafetida,Curry leaves powder, very little garam masala, salt to taste.

Stuff your cut Okra with the mix made above.

It will look like :








Take a pan , add a teaspoon full of oil , add cumin seeds and turmeric powder.
Add the stuffed Okra and let it cook for 10 min on medium flame.
Make sure you don’t keep the lid above throughtout. That might make it smudgy/watery.



Your yummy Stuffed Okra is ready .




Serve it with hot parantha , phulka or chapati with Curd /pickle /dash of lemon juice as per your taste.

Hiatus!!

It’s been a long hiatus on this space here…. Partly because of studies, submissions…well honestly these would be all lame reasons…probably it was the ennui ….of What? The routine? No coz u need to have one for that.. yes!! Here everyday welcomes new set of tasks that are waiting to be done..well more or less revolving around the “same” things though…!!

The ennui of running behind the goals that you set for yourself….wherein you reach a stage when u are really confused of why you started one at the first place?

Or probably, it’s just the cluttered thoughts that I wasn’t able to put clearly!! I must be kidding….how can I put “cluttered” thots “clearly”? Well true!!

There could be similar such reasons for this…but clearly it wasn’t because I dint have anything to write about…No never..!! I am never short of stories…things…observations.. thoughts…because I talk to myself often..Almost always…No no I am no nerd!! Of this, I realised lately while giving a small presentation…in those nerve wracking 10 minutes where I had so much to talk about , I had so much to think of something else simultaneously…yes I have a very efficient inbuilt “parallel processor” !

I guess….the hibernation time is over for this blog… and I would write more often now…about? Same ol’ things….

In the past couple of months, I have been running way too much…well unfortunately not on treadmill….:p Anyway, the project that I worked hard on managing my coursework ended well and we celebrated it on the 96th Floor of the Hancock… What was more intriguing for me was the way I mingled out comfortably with all the folks that I worked with…all of them from different countries…Friends n family who know me know that I get intimidated badly with a new group, I get instantly uncomfortable …..But, probably not anymore….

Probably I am changing…Can I say growing?

Just when...

There are so many things to do and just so little time ….I wish I had few more hours in my day or atleast some less sleep :) As far as I can go back in time, I always have had this “if only I get some free time, I would love to..” phases probably forever. And I keep wondering just when I am going to get it.

The answer is probably never. The beauty of life is that it always keeps you busy like an enthralling movie – keeping you at the edge of your seat.. never realising when it gets over…days just pass by, fast as always. Whats intriguing is , it applies to all the days, of rains and sunshine …

Well, I have reached a stage where my “to do someday” list is so lopsided that it burdens me sometimes. I get crazy over it…I think I should either stop adding any more items in that list or just start working on it right away!! Well, since the first one is highly impossible I am left with the relatively easier option. The time to do something is always “now” or “never” and I am close to believing it more with every passing day.

The wish list is so simple…simple because its more about the things that I would like to do for my personal peace and happiness ,when I get some leisure, and its so simple to be happy … but yet so difficult to start with. Why? Time again.

And then ,
I suddenly realize that I don’t remember anything that I studied in geography, history or sciences …forget that engineering too seems to be a bygone era.. Especially when you need to implement some concept of which you don’t remember anything at all..
I think , this is another issue that I have swiftly shifted on to now.. pause!

I know, take a deep breath!!!! And start with one thing at a time.

And as always , that one thing is studies and more studies…and more work in the lab…
And as far as other things, aah well I will do them when I get some free time.. yo!! Back to square one!!!

Womanhood

Woman’s Day was never this meaningful to me before..a day to take a moment out and thank all those wonderful souls out there who help me live all the bitter sweet moments in life with a pinch of salt… who have taught me small-big things and upon whom I look upto …not to become like them but atleast try to take one positive from each of them...

Of raining...

When it rains here, it rains heavily…skies darken ..Everything is at a lull… I clicked this snap from the window in my library while havin lunch. Well I know its not a very gr8 pic to boast about, but yeah, the very first one that I took from blackberry and could import it successfully in my laptop.Ok. Fine, this is not a place to boast about that. I know!!

Well, yea..Rains… havin lunch all alone while rainin heavily definitely took me back to India…and all the rains that I have had there..the good ones, the bad ones, the messiest (I don know whether that’s even a word) ones..but honestly much better than here..there u have the curiosity of runnin over the window to watch it raining…n the oohs n aahs in the most girly ways wd ur sissies or dear frnds..That reminds me of the rains one day, when me and Bhakti drove to a temple not very closeby getting all drenched up and then got back to our cubicles after half an hour of trying to dry ourselves in the hand-dryer in the washroom. Now, aint that crazy?
N now, I sit here tryin to take it as normally as I can wdout letting me affect it in any way.
Atleast there, u hv ur mom opening the doors handin u a cuppa tea …which while sippin rips off all the irritation that the rains might have caused…
And here, I head back to the lab…and later to a door that’s locked….
Awwww!!!

Ok. This ones another pic…describing the deadness(I am quite unsure of this word too ..eeks..what m I doin?) of the library…I don’t know whether it’s the rains or the heavy lunch that makes me feel lethargic…and well, dumb!!

Well, gotto go now!!

p.s : I have tried my best not to make it an emotional post!

Snow fall

Season is the best quantifiable measure of how time flies. They come and go. Winters, Summers, Fall and winters all over again. I remember how Fall made me so sad inspite of being so beautiful. And now it’s the snow. The trees are now all bare. Well they knew they would be. The colors all lost. Its black and white. Snow is everywhere. The only colors are those of cars or some other things which don’t have life in them. And those with life have become colorless and hence lifeless. I look at the snow and don’t know how does it make me feel. Its supposedly so sad, so silent so chilled. The only thing that u see while walking back is the footprints in the snow …that u carefully follow without knowing whose they are , just to avoid thumping in the snow. I don’t see the chipmunks anymore. Forget flowers and plums.
Everybody knows that snow is depressing. It gives a sinking feelin ..U hardly see the sun.
So its either snow or snow storm .and if not that then the rains..Everything seems to be standstill even though u are moving on , the time is moving on. The snow flakes are untouched white and soft. I catch a few but only with my leather gloved hands… The silence I feel somehow is not haunting… its peaceful. May be the white color gives u tat. The snow laden carpet to walk, every bush growing cotton flowers…. If u observe closely, u can wonder how snow falls in unreachable crevices wherein it becomes ice to be melted down by the sunrays. The silence is harmonious. It connects u wd urself. U talk less, observe more, explore less evolve more. Its my second winter season here and I already feel I am so used to it…as if I grew with all this.
It doesn’t bog me down, swing my moods or depress me. It doesn’t irritate me either. I blink my eyelids as I feel the snow flake gently settling on them. It gives a tickling feelin and I feel I belong to a far off land , playing a character in some fairy tale…, or one of those hobbits wearing the heavy snow jackets making my way towards my home.

Coffee

He was talking at length and she was listening
With a smile in her eyes…
She had waited for this day for so long..A coffee with him.
She dint sleep the entire night out of sheer excitement..
Of how it would go.

She rehearsed her lines, cat-walked in her stilettos..
Bought a dress just for a coffee wd him..

And that’s not all ..

She made it sure what to order and not to seem confused..
And how? She tried almost every coffee in CCD the complete week..
Irish , cold coffee, French vanilla, hazel nut,
roasted almond, Cappuccino, Decaf

Everything …!!!

Her thoughts were interrupted by him.. “And how about you? “
“Well…umm ..Aarrrrph…” She burped quite audibly.
Blood rushed to her cheeks out of embarrassment

“Damn it…Acidity” she murmured to herself.

The year that was...!!!

Today I am a year ahead than what I was last year ...putting in simple words.. !
But also, I completed one year of coming here ..the US of A.
Years come and go…u live every year..every single day..some days are easy some very hard.., but whatever, years later , wen u think of any year in ur mind..there are so few things associated wd it… I mean , just imagine , u close ur eyes and think of an year say 2002 or 1995 ..every year has few signifgicant happenings..which marks the memory of that year but alas just at a glance.. So strange..u live it wd soo much of stress, and pain and struggle just to later realize that its gonna be not even a minutes worth of memory …as simple as flipping a page in a book..!

I hope this sudden realization will help me take things easy and not go bonkers over anything and everything I undertake..this year…

ps: I am back :)