Medley of Many Things

Months back, I went to this bookshop " Crossword ". Usually, I go through their display ,  to get to know the current favorite among the readers! And guess what I stumbled on to - " F?@K Knows "! These bookshop chains usually arrange their favorites like a huge  house of cards , which ideally means the book is selling like hot cakes (or) the author of the book has shelled out enough money to sell them by hook or by crook, utilizing some marketing strategy. See, some don't need money, all they need is fame! Did I buy the book from the shop? Nope. The title and the foreword did not intrigue me too much to buy the book, but it intrigued me to a level that I went home and read online reviews on the book. And satisfied that, this book is gonna be a good one, I placed an order via " Flipkart ". They are always on time, I got the book in just 2 days. This book costs 195 bucks. It is a motivation-cum-self-help-cum-preachy-cum-bio-cum-weird book, yes - it clea...

How many times a day do we use some form of technology in life? Pretty much every minute: be it the usage of smart phones, laptops, tablets, phablets,...etc. We got so much used to it that sometimes we do not see the answer to a simple problem lying right in front of us. As much as I love technology and anything to do with it, I do believe in the fact that - " Technology made us all lazy, to an extent ". To get back to our humanness, we have to use only those entities which are necessary and let go off the rest. If that is not possible, then take a " technology break " once a month - see how beautiful the day turns out to be! I did one complete day, and I was so peaceful, Zen like! If somebody asks me to tell them the current-local-time , although I wear my watch all the time, I go straight to my phone, it is not that I cannot read time, it is just that my phone displays it for me. What can I say? Laziness personified! I'm sure many of you would have come across...

This is one of my favorite short stories. I got this story as a forwarded mail long back. There are only 2 lines in the story but the take away is worth spending couple of minutes. Not everyday we come across intense yet thought provoking stories( whoever that wrote the story, kudos to you boss! ). The Story: A grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, "I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one." The grandson asked him, "Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?" The grandfather answered: " The one I feed." My Analogy: What a powerful reply from the Grandfather! Isn't it? This is a very important scenario, mainly because it states no matter what the circumstance is - it is always "we" who decide as to which path to follow, which decision to take, which mountain to climb! Have you ever acted in ways that were u...

We Indians are very much aware of the basic concept of Mumbai's Dabbawalas . For those who are not aware of this concept, here is an introduction: Note : If you do not have time to read the entire post, just see the Youtube clip(below) - that summarizes everything! Introduction : The word " dabba " literally means " box ", in specific " a box containing a meal " and the suffix " walla " means " the person who carries the box ". Colloquially " Dabbawala " is a " lunch box distributing man ". The men in the household leave for work as early as 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, hence the women in the household prepare the lunch and send them away with Dabbawalas to be delivered to their husband's workplace every day. And this service is unique to Mumbai's suburbs and the concept is existing for more than 100 years now. They manage to deliver tens of thousands of meals to workplaces all over the city with nearly 1...

If you are one of those, who is bored of the regular coconut chutney day-in-day-out, then this chutney will be a life saver. It is a good mix of onion, tomato and coconut sauteed with spices and ground to perfection. This goes very well with Idli, Dosa and also as a side to Curd Rice. I have seen people mix this chutney directly with plain rice and have them(something like a pachadi), so it kinda works that way too!! Ingredients : 1)Onion - 1(chopped) 2)Tomato - 2(chopped) 3)Green Chillies - 3(slit) 4)Grated Coconut - 4 tsp 5)Garlic - 3 pods(crushed) 6)Oil - 1 tsp 7)Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp 8)Whole Red Chilli - 1 9)Urad Dal - 1 tsp 10)Asafetida - a pinch 11)Turmeric Powder - a pinch 12)Salt - to taste 13)Coriander leaves - 5 sprigs Preparation : 1)Heat oil in a pan and add asafetida, cumin seeds, whole red chilli and urad dal. Let it splutter. 2)Add garlic and slit green chilli, saute for couple of seconds. 3)Add onion and salt, saute until they turn translucent. 4)Add chopped tomatoes, tur...

A simple one pot meal with protein rich dal, combined with no over-the-top seasoning and some veggies. Tada... you got yourself a lovely kichdi! Have this with papad, pickle and curd. Kichdi is always light on the tummy and that is what makes me stick to this recipe at least once every two weeks. You can add any combination of veggies in the kichdi! Ingredients : 1)Rice - 3/4 cup 2)Yellow Moong dal - 1/2 cup 3)Onion - 1(medium, chopped) 4)Tomato - 1(medium, chopped) 5)Green chilli - 2(slit) 6)Broad Beans - 5(chopped) 7)Carrot - 1(small, chopped) 8)Garlic - 5 pods(chopped) 9)Asafoetida - a pinch 10)Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp 11)Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp 12)Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp 13)Ghee - 1.5 tsp 14)Salt -  to taste 15)Water - as required Preparation : 1)Soak rice and dal in water for 30 minutes. 2)Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pan and add asafoetida, mustard and cumin seeds, let it splutter. 3)Add chopped garlic and slit green chilli, saute for couple of seconds. 4)Add chopped onions and sa...

One of those fries which tastes perfect with any form of rice. You can change the spices as per your taste. I usually have this with curd rice or rasam rice. But why the hell did I add mustard? Well, what can I say, without the black pearls any fry kinda looks bland to me, hence the unnecessary addition - you may choose to ignore!! :-) Ingredients : 1)Taro Root(Arbi) - 6 2)Oil - 2 tsp 3)Red Chilli Powder - 3/4 tsp 4)Amchur Powder(Mango Powder) - 1/2 tsp 5)Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp 6)Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp 7)Salt - to taste Preparation : 1)Clean and peel the skin of Arbi. Cut Arbi into desired shape and size. 2)Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Let it splutter. 3)Add the chopped Arbis into the pan and stir well. 4)Add salt. Let it cook, do give it a stir now and then. Make sure the Arbis are tender yet crunchy. 5)Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, amchur powder and mix well. 6)Let it cook for couple of minutes and switch off the flame.