Medley of Many Things

Indian Politics is a whirlwind, picking one person out of the lot is a huge exercise. There are some people in the world, whom we hate and there are several others, whom we like and there is a third category, of whom one cannot IGNORE. And that is because they are constantly in news for one reason or the other and one of those would be Subramanian Swamy . Yes, the Political Leader of Janata Party (India). When a person speaks in a public medium, that too - when he/she holds a public service or government position, the chances of getting maximum audience and coverage in the form of people and media - would be good, when their speech beholds one of these: 1)One - Tongue firmly in cheek. 2)Two - Biting your own tongue. And, should I even mention that - our Swamy falls under point number two? I sometimes wonder, should his middle name be " Troublemaker "? - Yes, he gets into too much trouble and mind you! nobody pulls him out of his troubles, he saves his own butt and gets his fa...

I don't like to meddle with the actual taste of any vegetable( in particular, bitter gourd ), I season them in such a way that, their innate taste is retained. And that is one of the reasons, I don't add sugar or jaggery to bitter gourd. I cannot tolerate the mild sweetness popping out of the already bitter recipe, I could never fathom this - dunno why?. All I do is, add basic seasoning, remove the really bitter seed from the center and saute it in little oil. As always, no deep frying required(strictly). Instead of trying to make this vegetable taste less bitter, you can have a main dish which is very light and subtle, say curd rice - this will work too. Warning: This is definitely not a kid-friendly recipe, HaHa! Ingredients : 1)Bitter Gourd - 1(medium) 2)Oil - 1 to 1.5 tsp 3)Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp 4)Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp( 1 tsp really? Yes you need a bit more of this. ) 5)Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp 6)Split Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp 7)Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp 8)Salt - to...

Palak Dal is one of the simplest of recipes, at the same time very rich and healthy too. It works very well with both rice and roti. It is a welcome change to the mundane Dal Fry for sure. Not many add tomatoes to this Dal, but I did - because I like the mild sourness it brings to the Dal. Ingredients : 1)Toor Dal - 1/2 cup 2)Spinach - 1 bunch(chopped, I used the stem as well) 3)Green Chilli - 1(slit) 4)Small Onions or shallots - 4(chopped or slit or whole) 5)Tomato - 1(small, chopped) 6)Whole Red chilli - 2 7)Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp 8)Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp 9)Asafetida - 1 pinch 10)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 11)Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp(optional) 12)Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp 13)Oil - 1 tsp 14)Ghee - 1/2 tsp Preparation : 1)Soak Toor Dal for 30 minutes in water. 2)In a pressure cooker, add soaked toor dal with enough water, turmeric powder, asafetida, salt, slit green chilli, shallots and tomatoes. Cook for 4 whistles. 3)Heat oil in a frying pan, add cumin, mustard seeds and...

Fellow blogger Sanjay, once shared a post on "Suspended Coffees", but somehow - I forgot to re-share that post in G+. So here, I'm sharing the mini story dusted with little more history. Before I jump into explaining, what is " Suspended Coffee " and what is so sweet about it, here is a question: How many of you can start a day, without the help from a pick-me-up, say coffee or tea? Not many! May be 10% among the entire population, right? So the remaining 90% of us, rely on this marvelous drink, which has become a part of our lives. Basically, Coffee is not a luxury but a human right :-) The Story(rather, the sweet gesture!) : At times, when we come across genuine stories like this, we will be reminded of the term " Being Human ", and in turn - it reinstates the faith in human beings - even when we are subjected to acknowledging a lot of natural and man-made calamities around the world!! "Suspended Coffee" can be called as a custom or a rit...

Meal-Maker(Soya) comes in different varieties and shapes - like chunks, granules, flakes, nuggets, grains, and strips. They are full of Protein and rich in Fiber. Hence, it is an ultimate ingredient to any type of cooking. Somehow, I do not like to use big chunks of Soya, hence I opted for granules. So here is a simple Pulao made of Soya Granules and Potatoes. Ingredients : 1)Long Grain Rice - 1 cup 2)Soya Granules - 1/2 cup 3)Potato - 1(medium, chopped) 4)Green Chilli - 1(chopped) 5)Onion - 1(medium, cut lengthwise) 6)Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp 7)Red Chilli Powder - 3/4 tsp 8)Garam Masala Powder - 1/4 tsp 9)Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp 10)Cardamon , Cinnamon, Cloves, Javitri(Mace) - a few 11)Salt - as per taste 12)Oil - 1/2 tsp and Ghee - 1/2 tsp Preparation : 1)Soak rice for 30 minutes and cook the rice along with whole Cardamon, Cinnamon, Cloves, Javitri(Mace), salt and water. ( If you have Saffron at home, then add saffron strands to luke warm mil...

The traditional Chinese version of fried rice contains egg, that is the base. Also they use ' one day old cooked white rice '. Yep, you heard it right! But here, I jotted down a simple yet authentic Chinese Veg Fried Rice (of course with egg but not with one-day old rice :-) ) . The ones, who cannot consume egg, can very well skip point number 3 and instead can add capsicum, works just fine. Ingredients : 1)Cooked long grain rice - 1 cup(should be grainy, less water please) 2)Egg - 2 nos 3)Carrot - 1 (medium, chopped) 4)Beans - 7 (chopped) 5)Green Chilli - 1 (chopped) 6)Regular Onion(Spring Onion works well too) - 1 (chopped) 7)Garlic - 3 pods(chopped) 8)Pepper powder - as per your taste 9)Soy Sauce(light) - 1 tsp 10)Salt - to taste 11)Oil - 2 tsp Preparation : 1)Heat 1 tsp of oil in a frying pan and add chopped green chilli, garlic, onion and salt. Saute until onion turns translucent. 2)Now add the chopped veggies and saute until they are cooked 90%(Yes, for any fried rice - t...

Seriously, what is with the rape culture among certain percentage of Indian men? In specific, we are hearing hell lot of news from the Northern part of India. The worst thing is, toddlers who are between the age of 4 and 5 are getting raped? Isn't this insanity personified? For the past one week, we have been hearing terrible news like: bomb blasts, earth quakes, explosions, 10 rape cases in India( in just one week )? One of the dailies reported that the rapist, who smothered the innocence of a 5 year old, comes out shamelessly and says - he was under the influence of alcohol and he had watched porn, before he pounced on the kid? I was like, my goodness, did he even listen to what he just said? How on earth these people sleep at night? (Whom or What) should we blame for such atrocities? - Parents? Lifestyle? Friends? Poverty? Male Chauvinism? - These are all just hog-washes to say the least. The real reason for the prevailing nonsense is THREE_FOLD : 1)Not having acc...

You might have read a lot about Boston Bombings, hence I'm not getting into any of that. Instead, I'm gonna solely concentrate on the technical side of it. I'm always intrigued by the findings that goes into making a successful or a failed capture/attempt. And I dunno, somehow I have always loved Hollywood action movies and have a great respect for The USA's defense system in the name of FBI, SWAT and so on. Unlike our Indian movies, Hollywood seldom shows their defense system in bad light. Why? Because they are really effective, up-to-date, have money to spend on defense and super strong. The pressure on the entire defense syndicate in The USA on Boston Bombings would have been hell lot, owing to the fact that it took them 3 complete days and even then they could not come up with anything concrete. But, by end of the 3rd day, they narrowed down the suspects to these immigrants from Chechnya(Russia) - Two brothers,  " Tamerlan Tsarnaev" , aged 26 and "...

I know, what you guys are thinking - " Carrot and Paneer", seriously? Yes, that is exactly how I was breaking my head, when I was trying to cook something with this combination for the contest hosted by lovely  Neela . I initially planned to make Bhurji with this combo, but since I had already added a variety of Bhurji with Paneer, I did not want to go down the same road again. So here, I made a simple and quick Pulao with carrot and paneer. Trust me, it turned out very well. Although, I wanted to add Capsicum, I could not find a fresh one in the super market today, so did not add them. But make sure, you guys add capsicum, it would be crunchy and just right. Ingredients : 1)Paneer - 1 cup(cubed, big chunks) 2)Carrot - 2 (small, Grated) 3)Green Chilli - 1(chopped) 4)Onion - 1(medium, cut lengthwise) 5)Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp 6)Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp 7)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 8)Garam Masala - a pinch 9)Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/4 tsp 10)Cardamon, Bay leaves, ...

I wanted to pen down something else for today, but just could not get a word out of my mind. I woke up to " Boston Marathon Bomb Blast " news early in the morning and the dreadful images that flooded internet. I just could not digest or get the images out of my mind, I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Two bombs, placed in a garbage can( or a mailbox ) blasted through the finish line of the Marathon in the heart of the city of Boston. Mind you! Boston Marathon  is the KING OF ALL THE MARATHONS around the world. This is one of the biggest events of its kind, with more than half a million fans watching live or online. You can see umpteen number of flags, belonging to different countries planted nearby the sidewalk of the long stretched road leading to the finish line, representing the participant's country. Taking part in this Marathon is no easy task, but the purists practice for months to get into shape and also to get used to the unfo...

This is the quickest of all the Paneer recipes in the world! Will we ever get bored of Paneer?? Nah!!! This is a simple yet damn-good-looking recipe. I have not added any vegetables other than tomato and onion, but you can very well add capsicum to this recipe, that will make the Bhurji even more crunchier. It goes very well with roti and rice. Ingredients : 1)Paneer - 1 cup(scrambled) 2)Tomato - 1(medium, chopped) 3)Onion - 1(medium, cut length-wise) 4)Green Chilli - 1(chopped) 5)Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/4 tsp 6)Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp 7)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 8)Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp 9)Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp 10)Salt - to taste 11)Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp 12)Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp 13)Oil - 1 tsp 14)Water - a little(optional) 15)Lemon - 1/4th Preparation : 1)Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and cumin seeds, let it splutter. 2)Add chopped green chilli, onion and salt, saute until the onion turns translucent. 3)Add ginger garlic paste, saute until the raw smell goes off. 4)Add chop...

Bottle Gourd is one of those rare vegetables which is packed with fiber, iron and protein. It has very less carbs. When bottle gourd is cooked with Moong Dal, there is nothing in the world which is so yummy at the same time damn healthy too. It is super good for those who are trying to lose weight.  Ingredients : 1)Bottle Gourd(small) - 1 cup (skinned & cut into mini cubes) 2)Moong Dal - 1/2 cup(soaked in water for 20 to 30 minutes) 3)Onion - 1 (small, chopped) 4)Whole Red Chilli - 2 5)Cumin & Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp each 6)Asafetida - a pinch 7)Garlic - 2 pods(chopped) 8)Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp(optional) 9)Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp 10)Ghee - 1 tsp 11)Salt - to taste Preparation : 1)Pressure cook the moong dal & bottle gourd pieces along with water, turmeric powder & salt for 2 to 3 whistles. ( If you want the cubed gourd to be mashed like mine in the pic, then leave it for 4 to 5 whistles ). 2)Take ghee in a pan, add asafetida, cumin, mustard seeds, l...

Yes, you guessed it right, this book falls under the category of Non-Fiction . The author says, the book will change your life forever. Okie, I read the book. Did it change my life? Well, I will let you guys guess the answer by telling you, what I'm doing right now - I'm having a cup of coffee(yes, home made cappuccino) as always , read three online dailies as always , listening to country music by band 'Lady Antebellum ' as always , looking for a good movie to download as always . Well, I'm sure, you know the answer! HeHe. For the once, who has no time to read the review, jump straight to the verdict section at the bottom. So the question here is, why this not-so-interesting book got too many rave reviews in the first place. My guesses would be: 1)Damn cheap - 150 bucks 2)Very less page count - 130 pages 3)If this is your FIRST ever motivational, inspirational or self-help book then guess what? You are gonna jump from head to toe and say what a lovely write up. ...

Radish is a great source of Vitamin C and it is rich in Fiber content. Hence this is a wonderful addition to any recipe especially salad, dal, sambar and gravies. But some how, I have never seen anybody making a recipe using just Radish, may be it doesn't taste that great without the help from lentils, I guess. Anyways, this is a simple dal from my den. Ingredients : 1)Toor Dal - A handful(soaked in water for 30 minutes) 2)Radish - 1(small, cut into chip shaped circles with slightly thicker density) 3)Tomato - 1(small, chopped) 4)Shallots or small onions - 2(chopped) 5)Whole Red Chilli - 2(broken) 6)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 7)Asafetida - a pinch 8)Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp 9)Salt - to taste 10)Ghee - 1.5 tsp 11)Curry leaves - 2 sprigs(chopped) 12)Mustard Seed - 1/2 tsp 13)Cumin Seed - 1/2 tsp 14)Garlic - 2 pods(chopped) 15)Water 16)Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp(diluted in 5 tsp of water) - Optional Preparation : 1)Pressure cook the following for 4 to 5 whistles: toor dal, chopped rad...

Although, there are umpteen ways to make cabbage taste good, this one, I'm talking about is damn simple and doesn't take too much time. Even though, you can have this with roti and a wet subji along with, it tastes better with rice. So here is the quick recipe. Ingredients : 1)Cabbage - 1 cup( cut lengthwise ) 2)Onion - 1( small, chopped ) 3)Whole Red Chilli - 2( broken ) 4)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 5)Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp 6)Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp 7)Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp 8)Salt - to taste 9)Oil - 1 tsp 10)Water - a little 11)Asafetida - a pinch Preparation : 1)Heat oil in a pan, add asafetida, mustard and cumin seeds, let it splutter. 2)Add broken red chilli and stir for couple of seconds.(Note: Do not burn the red chilli) 3)Now add the chopped onion, turmeric powder and salt, saute till they turn translucent. 4)Add cabbage and mix well. 5)It takes at least 5 minutes for the cabbage to cook, please do sprinkle water and stir well in between. Also make sure the cabbage do...

Yesterday, I broke a self-made rule. Hmm...I did not add a new post to the blog( you see, the rule is one post per day ), all I did was to add a picture to my old post  Raw Banana Fry . I indirectly should blame a buddy for making me think too philosophical that my routine derailed( HaHa ). So here, I have decided to add 2 posts today as a compensation & here is one: This is a short story about " Not Wasting Food ", of course with a good moral as a take away. I got this story as a mail forward long long back, I did save it somewhere and today it is of use to my blog. Read on: This story is narrated in a real time mode.  Germany is a highly industrialized country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Siemens etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this country. In such a country, many will think its people lead a luxurious life. At least that was my impression before my study trip. When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in H...

I'm brain dead. Yes, that is how I feel today. Too much of philosophical thinking brought writer's block (Yes, I consider myself a writer(HaHa). No No No, you cannot laugh! ;-) ) So here is a story that I stumbled upon sometime back, which teaches a simple but effective lesson! Read on. I'm sure you would have seen Geese ( weird pronunciation, yes plural of Goose ) flying south for the winter, if you would have observed properly, you might have seen them forming a "V" shape in the sky, But do you know why? As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following.( Much like how 'Formula One' cars work ) By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71 percent greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily, because they are travelling on the thrust of one another. When a goose falls out...

Barely 3 weeks back, the weather in Bangalore was cool as a cucumber , but now it is not just extremely hot but also sweaty and annoying. Bangalore is one of those favored places in India, where winter persists for at least 5 months of every year and for the rest of the year, the climate sides mildly towards the winter, although you cannot call it a Spring. And mind you, most of us need not switch on the fan to sleep in the night, Bangalore nights are like built in air conditioning at service 24/7 with mild showers then and there. You will easily come across people wearing a pair of sock inside their houses. Well, the climate is that beautiful!  But, by the mid of March this year, suddenly everything changed, like somebody pulled a stack of card, the climate became painfully hot and sweaty, it is not even summer yet! Why this abrupt climate change? Who is the culprit behind causing such an inconvenience not just to Bangalore but to the entire...

I'm talking about the latest news,  Facebook(FB) Home ! FB Home is a brand new Application for mobile phones running on ' Android ' Operating System. Yes, you guessed it right, Android is an 'open source' Operating System created by none-other-than FB's rival Google! How did FB pull off the impossible by grassing into Google's own product? I would call this a Master Stroke by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  To learn more, read on: What is FB Home? : Let me start with a question: What do you do with your smart phone?  Calling, texting, browsing, facebooking, G+ing, Whats Apping, capturing image, playing games, shooting video & so on. So Facebook is already part of your regular phone usage, then what is this new FB Home? What is the advantage? Is this any different from Facebook? The answer is, To log into Facebook, G+, MySpace....etc, you have a login page with username and a password, which takes you to the individual social networking site. So it...

Marissa Meyer, at age 37, she is the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The first thing she did right after taking up the incredible job of being the CEO of Yahoo, is to take 2 weeks off from work to become a mother. Yes, you heard it right, just 2 weeks and she was back to work clocking nearly 15 hours everyday. Corporate honchos of silicon valley blew trumpet stating that she is the best thing that ever happened to Yahoo and several months later she banned Work-From-Home ( or otherwise called as telecommute ) option for all the employees in Yahoo. Suddenly the priced possession  of silicon valley became one of the most hated CEOs in Corporate America for embracing the aforementioned rule. Every journalist, feminists, authors, opinionated people, corporate heads and the ones who-have-no-other-work-but-to-critique shunned her for insanity and called her idea 'stupid'. But I( & I'm sure, some of you ) feel that, what she did with Yahoo is something very audaci...

There is nothing as such to talk about Sambar, a typical South Indian staple. So yes, let's get straight into my Sambar. Ingredients : 1)Toor Dal - 1/2 cup 2)Tomato - 1(chopped) 3)Small Onions or Shallots - 4(cut into 2 halves) 4)Green Chilli - 1(slit) 5)Drumstick - 1(cut) 6)Carrot - 1(chopped) 7)Curry leaves - a sprig 8)Okra - 3(cut) 9)Tamarind pulp - size of small lemon(soaked in lukewarm water for 15 minutes) 10)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 11)Sambar Powder - 1.5 tsp (I used Shakti Sambar Powder ) 12)Ghee - 0.5 tsp 13)Oil - 1 tsp 14)Salt - to taste 15)Asafetida - a pinch 16)Mustard and Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp each 17)Whole red chilli - 1(crushed) - Optional Preparation : 1)Soak dal in water for 30 minutes. 2)In a pressure cooker, add dal, small onion, green chilli, tomato, carrot, turmeric powder, salt, asafetida and add required amount of water.(Let it cook for 4 whistles) 3)Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, cumin seeds, crushed red chilli, curry leaves and saute for couple of se...

A dry subzi with staple Indian spices, okra(bhindi) and potato. This is one of those recipes, which is extremely easy to make, at the same time the outcome is very rich and appealing. Let's dive straight in, shall we? Ingredients : 1)Potato(Aloo) - 1( medium, cut them into lengthy strips & place them in a bowl of water ) 2)Okra(Bhindi) - 8( clean, pat dry & cut them into medium-sized chunks ) 3)Onion - 1( small, chopped ) 4)Tomato - 1( medium, chopped ) 5)Green Chilli - 1( chopped ) 6)Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp 7)Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp 8)Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp 9)Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp 10)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 11)Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp 12)Oil - 2.25 tsps 13)Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp Preparation : 1)Heat oil(1/2 tsp) in a pan, add the okras(bhindi) and saute them until the corners start to turn dark. Make sure it is not completely burnt. It takes not more than 2 to 3 minutes to cook. Keep aside. 2)Heat oil(3/4 tsp) in the same pan, add the po...

Today, I'm gonna be talking about a funny but incredible software application named " Siri " from Apple Inc., which is compatible with ipad, ipod touch, iphone 4S series onwards. Although there are so many alternatives to Siri in the market right now, Siri is one of its kind and a pioneer in this area. Apple asserts that, software Siri adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results according to user's choice. Yes, it takes time for Siri to get to know or understand you, but it surely does. Also, Siri is available in the market space from 2011 onwards. So what is 'Siri'? You can call this application, a voice assistant, a navigator, a personal assistant who is intelligent and smart. All you have to do is talk to the application and it will respond back with a pre-selected voice of your choice and also in the form of text. Say for example, you are asking Siri " Find me a Chinese Restaurant nearby ", Siri would respon...