A trip to Kumarakom anyone?

Tags

Abc Wednesday, Abc Wednesday Round 6, gods own country, houseboat, kerala, kumarakom, munnar, pics, picture, travel

K is for Kumarakom in God’s Own Country aka Kerala

A place for lovely morning overlooking the backwaters

and the fishermen in the boats

of lonely birds in the middle of water

of the most awesome water views

the huts and Toddy(Palm Wine) shops in the middle of nowhere

of religious processions and conserving culture

Last but not the least the most awesome houseboats

so rustic and traditional from the outside

yet you will be amazed at the plushness and the comforts available inside, TV, fridge, AC, yummy food, chilled beer… name it they have it 😀

Kerala truly indeed is God’s Own Country, whether its the backwaters or the tea heaven munnar… where warmth is in abundance and nature’s at its best and massages are done in birth suits 😉

For more Kool K’s go to the ABC Wednesday page

PS: All pictures clicked by me or N during our trip there in 2008

Guest Post at thehrstore

Tags

blogging, guest post

thehrstore is a professional HR blog that I thoroughly enjoy reading, good insightful information on HR as well as the way he tackles the readers queries.

In his own words

I’m a Human Resources professional and having dabbled with start-ups and large organizations, I believe in having the answer to – What it takes to make Staffing, Employee Relations, HR work!

And I am delighted to say that I have got the honor of writing a guest  post for that blog…

Go here to read the post and leave a comment on the blog…

PS: comments are off here

MIHYAP

When I picked up May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss, I was really apprehensive in my head because greatbong’s blog is something I really enjoy reading and I was hoping it would not be terrible disappointed like Cryus’s book… Even DORK by Sidin (another blog I liked quite) wasn’t really all that great. So I kept my hopes very low. Consciously telling myself “Girl its ok… it might not be a great book” but at the end of book was happily telling myself… “See its a great book ;-)”

I enjoyed the book thoroughly. It took me back in times when I was growing up and there were tons and tons of times when I was smiling thinking of some aunt or uncle or something that I did when I was that young (sigh I am not old yet than why am I writing this 🙂 ), there were times when I would laugh out loud or start nodding vigorously and people around me would ask… Gone mad kya 😉

The sattire in the book on the fine nuisances of the Great India are so well treated that I really loved them.

The book deals with everything that is close to our Indian hearts… management institutes… now come tell me how many does your town has? 😉 the crazy fundas of the crazy bollywood, the NRI folks on whom our so called economy is based,  the hindi saas bahu soaps and the reality TV  and last but not the least the sexual frustations of the Indian youth

I loved the whole book but my personal favorite was the Back to future he tried to create… just loved it. Don’t want to divulge too much info here on that.

The only small problem I had with the book is that it felt very raw and not too refined if u understand what I mean but going by the way he writes his blog I am guessing this is intentional 😉

I would certainly classify it as a very good read though give it a skip if what u love is primarily stories with characters defined.

Rating 3/5

Book May I Hebb Your Attention Pliss

Authors greatbong aka Arnab Ray

Price Rs 199/-

Earn them or Buy them

Tags

bangalore, india, politics, voting

Yesterday it was BBMP (municipal) election in Bangalore. While me and mil went and voted N couldn’t because he was traveling for some biking fun with the boys.

So yesterday when the maid came in late… I asked her

Vote de aaye?

And then she yes and said this

Haan madam de tou diya but kya fyaada… 20 din se sabko chicken biryani khila raha hai main nahin khaayi, kyonki mujhe usko vote nahin karna… acha nahin hai woh… and aaj subah subah aake blanket, saree and 500 rupiyah diya aur bola vote mujhko hi dena. chalo saath do deke aao… and uske bande sab saath gayee and ushi ko vote dena pada.. kya karoo madam aadmi bhi yahan nahin hai so jaisa bola waise kar diya

Translation : Ya I gave the vote but what good it is. One of the candidates was feeding the whole area chicken biryani in the night she claims she didnt even have one day as he is not a good candidate and she didnt want to vote for him. Then the morning of the voting that guy came and gave her blanket, saree and rs 500 in cash and asked her to vote for her… As her husband is not living (thats a story for another post) she did what she was asked to

I was stunned… I was angry… I mean I know buying votes etc is not a new practice but somehow I never thought it would be existent in a big city like Bangalore. The so called IT city of the country…

Is this voting even worth it? Then I was discussing this with thehrstore on twitter and he said this

@monikamanchanda – Damn! That’s bad. 😦 At least their vote counted. We’ve a number problem here. Glad u voted.

which made me think… true she has atleast voted this way and if she was smart enough she would have taken the money and voted for someone else 😉 but then how many people are so fearless and gutsy?

Does this vote really count? What do u think… is it better to not go and vote than to vote for people like this under such circumstances?

Give your Day a kickstart

Tags

besan, breakfast, dhokla, Friday Feast, gramflour, methi, oats, peas, recipe, spinach, sprouts

I personally think (and its proven as well) that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A good healthy and nutritious breakfast, half the problems are solved 🙂 So this Friday let me focus on some yummy and nutritious breakfasts… yeah yeah u got it right, I am posting multiple recipes here. There are so many recipes I want to post and so little Fridays 😉

Sprouts Dhokla

Sprouts is a food whose goodness has been emphasized on this blog too often 😉 I love sprouts in any form and the fact that they are yummilicous too adds to it. Also sprouts have a distinct flavor that suddenly gives any dish a pep up. I saw this sprouts dhokla recipe in one of the magazines (I think Food lovers) long long back and since then I have been making this at home quite often. Easy, yummy, healthy and low cal…. Can we ask for anything else ?

Ingredients

• 100 gm gram flour
• 200 gm sprouted bean sprouts, pureed
• 1 cup curd blended
• 1 tsp green chilli paste
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp eno fruit salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• for the tempering
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 tsp oil
  • 3-4 green chillies slit vertically
  • coriander and curry leaves for garnish

Method

• In a bowl mix gram flour, curd, pureed sprouts and water to form a smooth batter of thick consistency. Add salt, mix and set aside for 4 hours covered with a lid (I left it overnight)
• Add the green chilli paste (the original recipe also asks for ginger paste which I skipped I really dont know why), turmeric to the batter and mix well
• Keep the steamer or cooker ready on the burner and grease ur steaming dish (I have a lovely dhokla maker at home… basically its a stack of three steel plates which go in the cooker, just like idly plates… so helpful)
• Mix eno, oil and lemon juice. Add the mixture to the batter and mix well
• Pour in the steaming dish and steam for about 10-12 mins or till done. Cool completely before taking out and cut in big cubes
• For the tempering, heat the oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter add the curry leaves and green chillies.
• Fry for a minute and pour over the dhokla, garnish with coriander and serve with green chutney

Green Oat Cakes

or in simple language pan fried oat cutlets 😉

Oats is such a healthy grain. I simply love it (atleast in my mind I think I should love it 😉 ) but none in my house even touches the oats porridge however tasty I make it by adding fruits, dry fruits, anything… everyone refuses to touch it. 😦 So I am on the constant lookout of Oats recipes… and when I stumbled upon this one yes yes Nita Mehta’s book again (gosh I have fallen in love with her… her recipes always always work) I was delighted… and when I made it the MNO household was delighted too… the servings for 4 was polished off by 2.5 of us in 10 minutes 😀

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats – roasted in a kadhai for 5 minutes on low heat till golden
• 1/2 cup boiled peas
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 green chilli – chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh coriander
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp lemon juic
• 1 tsp oil

Method

• Wash spinach and put in a kadhai. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 minutes
• Add 1 green chilli and chopped corainder. Add the roasted oats and mix well
• Put in a grinder and grind to a rough paste. Add all the other ingredients.
• Add 4-4 tbsp of water to make the mixture bind together.
• Add lemon juice to taste.
• Divide into 8-10 balls depending on what size u want. Flatten them a little. Pan fry in a non-stick pan in 1 tsp oil till golden brown. Serve hot with ketchup and salad.

And while we are at oats one of my favorite breakfasts.. oats dosa or crepe whatever u want to call it 😉

Oats Dosa

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 semolina (sooji)
• 1/4 cup wheat flour (atta)
• 1/2 cup curd
• 2 cups water
• 1 green chilli chopped (or alternatively put a little red chilli powder)
• 1 bunch methi leaves chopped ( u can use any other vegie also if u like)
• handful of chopped coriander
• salt to taste
• oil/ghee/butter for making dosa

Method

• Mix all the ingredients together and set aside for half an hour
• Spread on the tava to make like dosa’s using oil, ghee, butter or if the non stick tava is nice than it will come with anything too
• cook both sides till golden brown and serve with chutney’s of ur choice

So what tell me what are your favorite breakfast recipes?

And on a side note one item has been ticked in my wishlist… I got a Canon SX 200IS yesterday and I have been supremely happy till now… hopefully u guys will get better food pics now, from such a long time the only camera I had was my cellphone one….

Janpath

Tags

Abc Wednesday, Abc Wednesday Round 6, janpath

J is for Janpath… one of my most favorite markets in the whole world 😉

I wish I had my pics and I could do a full photo feature on Janpath but unfortunately I lost once when my laptop crashed and this is probably the only pic I am left with and yeah this one too…

the indian pandit on janpath 😉

For more amazing J’s… go here

Books Books and some more books

Tags

ashok k banker, book, book review, books, her fearful symmerty, nive lives, prince of ayodhya, ramanya, review, right shoe wrong fit, spirituality, varsha dixit, william dalrymple

Finally I do my long pending reviews… Feb was a month where I read a lot (ok Smitha we are not competing with u and neither with u smitha 😀 gosh do all smitha’s read so much or its only our two 😉 ) ok so I read about 6 books in 28 days which is good enough for me 😉 but I never got around doing any reviews for them… kept thinking of doing. There are about 5 drafts for these books in my folder and then I thought its high time I finish them and then publish as one single post… phew finally I hope this post sees the light of the day

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

A book so unlike me, so unlike the books I usually read… I am usually not the one reading a lot of spiritual material or spiritually inspired books. So much so that when I read Eat Pray Love India’s part was what I liked the least but when someone gifted me this book I was forced tempted to read it and I am actually so glad I did. It showed me a new face to India. It made me think about the India I don’t know at all, a India I am so ignorant of its existent . The book as the name suggest is about nine lives… nine lives of nine Indian people who take up the spiritual path. I loved the way William captured their lives maintaining a fine balance between becoming preachy and stating the spiritual facts so well.

The characters here of course go extreme in their devotion their thinking clouded by their faith but yet they are happy or rather they are peaceful. The story about the dalit jailor and well digger who transforms himself to a God like status two months a year during Theyam (of which I knew nothing before reading this btw, I mean I knew there exists a dance like this but I didnt know the history)… a Buddhist monk who picks up a weapon to fight against China and then turns to making prayer flags, a Jain nun who gives up food slowly to embrace death.. the characters have been brought to paper beautifully.

According to me a very very good read

Rating 3.5/5

Book Nine Lives

Authors William Dalrymple

Price Rs 495/-

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

The second book by the author who gave us the brilliant (atleast I loved it) Time Traveller’s Wife. So since it is out I have been wanting to read it but I have said this before that how on some books I suddenly become kanjoos 😀… (I am strange very strange sometimes) so when I saw this in the library I picked it up…  As usual like her previous book this is a very very different book, a book about ghosts. I don’t even remember when was the last time I read a book about ghosts.

Its a story of two generation of twins – identical twins. The two main girls Julia and Valentina find themselves in the London apartment of their dead but still existent as a ghost Aunt whom they had never met all their lives because of some their moms didn’t want to keep the relation going between them for reasons that are not known to anyone.

When I started this book  I was mighty excited about it, loved the author the subject was juicy enough – two set of twins, ghosts. Did the book stand up to the expectations – I would say mostly yes.The book deals with its subject pretty nicely and I think if I write anymore I would give in a lot for a review 😉

But all in all a book I recommend too… may be not as good as TTW but a decent read

Rating 3.5/5

Book Her Fearful Symmetry

Authors Audrey Niffenegger

Price Rs 570/-

Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok K Banker

When I read The Pallace of Illusions it left me wondering why has this modernization of the Ramayan not yet done (yeah call me dumb I didn’t know about the existence of this one 😦 ) and after some research and talking to fellow readers I got to know about it this one and damn I am cursing myself of why I didn’t know of it before. WHY? Its a brilliant book, loved it from the starting to the end

The way Banker has dealt with the ancient text and almost converted it into a modern piece of sci-fi fiction but yet handled the sensitivities of us Indians for their scared texts is amazing.

I have always wondered (like him as he mentions in the preface of the book) that how do people of this generation read the Ramayana. I tried picking up an English translation long ago but its not just the language which is a binding in reading it, its the whole way its written, I never got around finishing that one and I think I have found my answer in Ashok Banker’s series.

A must read for everyone interested in Ramayana. I am surely picking up the next volume soon.

Rating 4/5

Book Prince of Ayodhya

Authors Ashok K Banker

Price Rs 570/-

Right Fit Wrong Shoe by Varsha Dixit

Aah after three nice books I do have a right to tell you about a bad one isnt it? 🙂 Ok not really bad but a okie tokie read (not a literature material basically)… I think its the one which tries to step into the desi chicklit category again only thing is doesn’t succeed as well as Zoya Factor. No actually let me change my mind here, this takes on making a new leauge.. Desi Mills and Boons 😉

Its a love story between Aditya and Nandini which are kids of a family which are really close to each other who fall in love and out of it and then like all good old romantic movies and books are back together.

The book is a fun ride I would admit and if you are into a fast pace time pass reading it won’t disappoint you and if u are a die hard 16 yr old romantic at heart u might even like it a lot :)…

Rating 2.5/5

Book Right Fit Wrong Shoe by

Authors Varsha Dixit

Price Rs 95/-

Go vote

Tags

awards, vote

This post made it to the Avante Garde Awards…

Go vote please

Best Travel Post Voting

A perfect Sunday and Some votes

Tags

avant garde bloggies award, best travel post, family, gokarting, karthik calling kathik, most beautiful header, most disciplined blogger, most intersting sidebar, movie, voting

What a Sunday I had yesterday… A day which starts with a yummilicous breakfast of palak-methi poori’s with aalo sabzi, pindi chole, raita and kheer can hardly go wrong… can it 😉 and anyone who dare reminds me of my dieting and weightloss plan here can be shot dead… so beware

Are u guys jealous enough or should I tell u what I did post that too 😀 😀 😀 I am all too excited because we took for his first ever go karting and man he enjoyed it a lot if not more than us, he surely enjoyed as much… thats N and him on a double cart… he sat through grinning for 4 laps all by himself and looked so damn adorable in that small helmet

and then we did what should be done on a hot sunday afternoon… swimming followed by beer and which was followed by Karthik Calling Karthik… I enjoyed the movie but it left me a disturbed, a little resltess but I think they have handled the subject well and Farhan as usual is rocking in the movie.

I wish I had more of such Sunday’s…. it was total bliss…

And now to spread the word and ask for the favor 😉 Avante Blog Awards voting has started and I am thrilled that I have been nominated in certain categories… though I am sad that none of the posts actually made it but heck as of now I will celebrate the nominations 😉 needless to say I need your love, support and votes 😀

So go click on the following categories and vote………

The Most Beautiful Header - Ojas's Blog

Most Intersting Sidebar

Most Disciplined Blogger

And the one that makes me the most proud… with a handful of posts written by N… the best travel post 😀 😀

The Best Travel Post - Munnar by N

What are u waiting for now go vote 😀

So whats ur native language?

Tags

books, english, hindi, kannada, kids, language, marriage, multicultural, parenting, reading, tamil, telegu, tullika publishers

How are u?

Kaise hain aap?

Tussi kidda?

Etla undao?

Apdi Erke?

Neenu Hehiddhiya?

Ideally I would want to be able to speak all of the above comfortably and so would I want Ojas to but unfortunately its not to be… and BTW if u are still wondering whats that its How are u in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Telegu, Tamil and Kannada and I so hope I have got it right

Ever since Ojas has been born I have been thinking how to make him pick up his native languages… And then utbt did this series of posts on languages which made so much sense to me and at the same time came Tullika’s blogathon about the same. So I am going to take this up for clarity of my mind and  sharing some thoughts.

How different are the written and spoken forms of your first language?

Well my confusion starts at the very fact that what is my first language.. so to speak I am a punjabi a proud one at that 🙂 but my pride just melts away when someone asks me if I know punjabi… I was born and brought up in Delhi the number of visits to Punjab being easily countable on fingers. So does this make Hindi  – the most common language in Delhi my first language? or Punjabi still remains my first language? or is the language that the child picks up first really called the first language? What do you guys think about this?

Anyways coming back to the question that Tullika raised. I really can’t answer it for Punjabi as I can just about understand it and barely manage to speak, reading and writing is a far of thing.. if any of u can throw light on it. I will be delighted. Roop? Mampi?

Coming to Hindi, spoken Hindi and written hindi are almost the same. Just as spoken and written English is almost the same. There are differences but minor and subtle. So if u know the script of the language and can speak decently well I guess u will manage to write it as well.

As far as it comes to Hindi I can fairly say I am confident in the language (but I still prefer if u don’t me my marks in Hindi in school I choose not to disclose that 😉 )… I can speak, read and write… though its been ages I have written anything in Hindi. I am going to pick up a notebook and write something anything post I finish this post

If you want children to become familiar with their first language, which form would you look for in children’s books – formal or informal? Why?

Aah here comes the biggest confusion of life… I am confused on what my first language is – Punjabi or Hindi? And the hubby his dad was from Tamil whereas the mom from Telegu (he know to speak and understand both but can’t read or write anyone of that) so as a result we are going to pass on four native languages to Ojas… Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu and by the sheer fact that he is actually born in Karnataka I would say that Kannada becomes his native too but even if we leave that aside… its a huge challenge for us to decide what to teach him and what not.

I ideally want him to pick all 5 languages but when I was discussing this with my sil the other day she mentioned that why burden the child so much? Are all these languages actually needed? And she does have a point. Picking up a language is not easy (atleast for me, I know there are some people who have such a good knack of it) but even if its not very difficult, I am sure learning five languages is surely confusing for a small child.

On the other I strongly believe that if we don’t pass our languages to our children they will slowly die to think of which is truly heartbreaking. The number of kids who understand their native languages is already on the decline. (Did I tell you that I curse my mom so much for the fact that she didn’t teach us Punjabi) And when I think of I realize the precisely what we face. Multicultural marriages.

Quite a lot of the couples around us have multicultural marriages and most of the kids from those speak primarily English but yes I have seen the kids of the same cultural marriages pick up their native language so beautifully.

At home, because everyone understands English and Hindi the conversation is by default in Hinglish. And that is what Ojas is picking up, that is what he speaks.

Coming back to the question that Tullika raised. If I want him to understand and learn the native language would I prefer a formal or an informal method?

Here my personal choice would be informal. I understand that what we can learn this way may not be grammatically correct but frankly does it really matter? If they do get interested in language slowly they can always pick up the grammar. Plus I strongly believe that kids learn the best in a informal way. So I would love Ojas to pick up the rest of the languages in just the way he is picking up English and Hindi. By talking and us reading books to him.

Currently we have both Hindi and English books for him and some bilingual ones by Tullika. I even had a Kannada bilingual which my maid used to read to him.

However there is a problem here.. that can’t be done for all the languages as its only Hindi and English we can read as a couple. So may be for the rest of them we’ll do a formal way for him and we too learn along 😉

Do share your thoughts on this? What does ur child speak more so if u have a multicultural marriage?