Ten on Tuesday : Xmas Special

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chrismtas, festivals, santa, ten on tuesday, xmas

I love doing Ten on Tuesday’s. Sometimes its so much easier to write and think in bullet points 🙂 So here at the ten things I love about Xmas

1. The colors, oh the glorious colors. The reds, the whites and the greens … Its love all the way

2. Plum Cakes : If left to me this will be point 1 to 10… I simply love love love it and so does N

3. Gifts, Gifts YAY… yes yes I am greedy for gifts but don’t those add a punch to life.. This time I participated in three Secret Santa games with three groups, one of them being the ones doing this month long marathon with me… I have got the gift from only one group now and the second one a mail that its on the way but I can’t tell you how excited I am about all this LOL

4. Xmas trees : there is something about a well decorated Xmas tree, though mine never looks as great as it should but I still love having it in my hall every december till the new year breaks in

5. Mulled Wine : Every Xmas I start making mulled wine at home a week in advance and we sip it in the evening 🙂 The spices the sugar the warmth… yumm yumm yummm

Picture Credit Google – I strangely couldnt find mulled wine picture in my folders and this year I havent made any because of the hospital rounds 😦 but I think I will make some today

6. Xmas Carols, Xmas songs : Growing up the only carol I had heard was Jingle Jingle bells but then some years ago our next door neighbors were Christians and come December every evening they would play some lovely carols and Xmas songs. Listening to it every evening became so much a part of my life that if they went out someday I would play it on youtube myself. Luckily even after moving houses we can Christians neighbors who play guitar and sing carols every evening. Bliss

Watch this amazing video of a carol

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8. Holidays : yeah who can have enough of holidays? Growing up it was 10 days school vacations, later for a while paid year end holidays and then worked for a company which had xmas shutdown and now its ojas’s vacation 🙂

9. Xmas movies : I love love love the movies around Xmas, be it Polar Express, A Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause, Jack Frost and many more

Picture Credit – Google

10. Happiness, Joy, Giving, Love : Last but not the least, love the spirit of Xmas, the love, the happiness, the joy it brings along

So here’s wishing u all a merry Xmas folks… Hope you have been good this year and santa is getting you loads of gifts

Have a safe and happy Diwali

Tags

diwali, festivals

When Happiness is in the air

Tags

culture, diverse india, diwali, festivals, india

That’s what this time of the year is. Time for festivals. It starts right with rakhi, janmasthmi and eid in August moves on to Ganesh Chathurthi to navratri , dashara, karwachauth and ofcourse the mother of all festivals for India – Diwali

I love this season, season in which there are celebrations all around, happiness all around and not to mention the yummy food.

What surprises me in India though is the diversity of these festivals, how the small things differ from region to region. So while during Ganesh Chaturthi a little gauri is worshipped in Karnataka its usually only the Ganesh is rest of the country. For navratri too its different beliefs., different celebrations. Up north people fast for 7 days because the little durga was hiding in a cave in Vaishno Devi during those days without food and on the 8th/9th day when she emerged out of the cave after killing Bhairo she went to a farmer house for food. So this is what is celebrated on, 7th days of fasting followed by feeding little girls who are treated as devis.. halwa, poori and chole before breaking the fast. While the same is celebrated in West with the lovely dandiya every night with all the fun, while in east its all about celebrating Durga with Pujo Pandals and sindoor khela with the final day marking the visargan of durga. Down south it takes a different avatar and people keep golu (lots of cute dolls lined up in stairs), people are invited home and little gifts are exchanged. One time so many celebrations, amusing isn’t it? Even the final 10th day i.e dushehra is celebrated so differently, while in North its celebration of Ram’s victory over Ravana by burning huge effigies of Ravana, Meghnath and Kumbhkaran which is preceded by 9 days of Ram Lila that is enacting Ramayana in form of drama, whereas in some parts of South of Ravana is actually worshipped.

And here I have just pointed out the differences in the navratri, the pattern just continues in all festivals. The diversity and the reason I love India some more

Leaving you with a picture of my thali for the kanjaks at home this year, halwa,poori,chole, mars in a kung fu panda plate…

And where we celebrate

Tags

eco friendly ganesha, eid, festivals, ganesh chaturthi, ganesha

Both Eid and Ganesha….

I think God really must think that I am good person, otherwise why is that my house always is a spicemen for national integration…

Do u remember the post I did last year around Ganesha… a sunday for all religions? I had a live in maid then who was keeping rojas and a chirstian cleaning maid, the live in help has got married and we have moved houses so the cleaning maid has changed too… but would u believe if I tell u the equation is still the same?

My full time maid (though she is not live in) is a muslim and the cleaning maid is chirstian again 😀

So this saturday we celebrated both eid and ganesha again and it was a total dejavu… I tell u… we did a full eid feast on Friday night with biryani, haleem, brinjal salan and semiyan

And then we celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi with the usual puja, flowers and ofcourse ladoos for the elephant god were made

This time too I went for eco friendly clay ganesha and was happy about it… hope it makes our dear Swaram also happy 🙂

here is the rangoli that me and ojas made

and finally Ganpati Bappa Morya….

And now I am dreading the visargan in sometime (which I am planning to do in a bucket BTW and then water my plants with it)… Ojas has been sulking and crying since morning as he doesnt wanna let ganpati bappa go….

So how were ur festivals? or the long weekend in case u didnt celebrate

Gajar Ka Halwa

Tags

carrot, dessert, Friday Feast, gajar, halwa, holi, indian, recipe, winter food

I had to start this post with that pic… I know I am a little late and summer is almost here but I somehow absolutely forgot about it but guys you are still getting those red carrots… make it one last time before they vanish from the market… I surely will and then how can I not have something sweet for holi 🙂

Gajar Ka Halwa (and I refuse to call it carrot halwa it just sounds something different also I am reminded of the carrot halwa that u get here made out of those orange carrots and that is just not my cup of tea 🙂 ) is one of my all time favorite desserts. I remember how we would start waiting for red (those orange carrots were not available in delhi in those days.. carrot used to be only red and available only in winters) carrots to come right from October so that we get to eat halwa 😀 😀 😀 and that patterns continues still

Hope you too enjoy the recpie

Ingredients

• 2 kg red carrots
• 500 ml cold milk
• 250 gms khoya (if u dont have khoya available which is usually the case in Bangalore u this recpie to quickly make it. Its microwave recpie for palkhoa, just be careful to reduce the sugar u add later)
• sugar to taste (i usually like it less sweet so I put about 3 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp ghee
• 1 cup mixed dry fruits

Method

• Shred the carrots (take care to not make them too fine they become too soggy if u do that)
• Put the carrots and cold milk together on the stove in a big kadai (putting it together and the milk being cold is very important else there is a tendency for the milk to curdle)
• Simmer stirring often and let it cook till the carrots are about half done…
• Add sugar and ghee to it… this point of time carrots will leave a lot of water, let it dry. By the time water dries the carrot will be almost cooked
• Let it simmer for another 10 mins or so
• Add the khoya and dry fruits to it and roast for about 10 mins on low heat
• Serve hot

My mouth is watering seeing the picture and I so want to make it again… Also I was thinking of making gujiya for this holi I have never made them before so if any of you have a fool proof recipe or tips please to send 🙂

On the other hand gosh will  u all mommy bloggers specially the ones in US tell me how the hell do you manage the house, cooking, kid and a blog single handedly??? I have just been doing it since 2 days and I think I am dead, the brat is sleeping right now so I squeezed some time to write a post, I still haven’t opened the reader and replied to the comments…. and here atleast I have a housekeeping maid who comes and go.. I bow to u all 🙂 apart from the work load we three are really enjoying this phase… this is the first time ever we have had as a family alone…. mil lives with us and the sometimes that she has gone visiting to sil’s house the maid has been there… It suddenly feels so nice to have the whole house to ourselves… (Disclaimer : My mil is nice I am not saying anything against her 😉 its just that the feeling of three as a family is very nice..)

and holi is here too… so here is wishing all u guys a very happy holi… keep the spirit of the festival and play sensibly… drink a lot of bhang 😉 Happy Holi

PS: the above pic is taken somewhere on the highway during our Delhi-Bangalore Drive

Fire Rewadi Dance Popcorn and more

Tags

bornfire, dance, festivals, india, lohri, music

yeah thats what Lohri is all about… a big bonfire, lots of til rewadi, moongfali, popcorn… a dhol and lots of dance… and ofcourse when everything becomes quiet sitting with your friends around the bonfire and chatting late into the night till the last amber is burning

I miss miss miss this festival… the happiness that floats around and the fun that is had… I am planning to go to the small celebration we are doing in the colony this evening… u guys have a happy lohri too

Leaving u with some snaps clicked on our first lohri after marriage… we celebrated that one in Delhi in full blast

and btw thats my grandpa putting the rewadi in the fire….

and thats me doing the kikili in the spirit of lohri with my cousin… my hands full with the lovely chooda…

and finally the relatively newly wed posing before the function began… gosh I was so thin

Sunder Mundriye Ho…. Happy Lohri

Happy Diwali

Tags

festivals

Wishing all of u a very happy diwali!! May the festivals of light bring lot of happiness and brightness along

Goodbyes are always tough

Tags

ganesha, ganesha pooja, Ojas, sweets

Ganesh Chaturthi is a festival I have started to love though its a festival we never celebrated at our house. My association with the Elephant God started after getting married.

Mil used to keep ganesha at home but past 4 years it was always like yes Ganesha is there, morning u say a few prayers eat some sweets the mil made and evening come back home and the Ganesha will be gone as she would have done the visargan the same day.

This time though because I was at home we decided to do it properly and the Ganapati handover to me officially happened 🙂

my small ganpati at home, kept at height to save from Ojas as Abha says even God need protection from kids, I was so particular I wanted a Ganesha which had no paint on it and wanted the same gauri too, though I got the Ganesha but still didnt the Gauri like that inspite of searching for 5 hours and 15 shops in Bangalore.

With the diya lighted

5 days were spent in absolute joy, making various delicacies, til ladoos, the traditional rice and coconut filling modaks, motichor ladoos, pyasam, puran poli, sooji ka halwa, milk modak, malupua and then because we had run out of ideas I started innovating and made Apple-Cocunut Kheer, Rasgulla Kheer (simpler form of rasmalai)

Today evening I bid Ganpati Bappa goodbye today with a heavy heart and there were bucket full of tears while doing it, if u are thinking they were mine… naah they were Ojas he simply refused to let the elephant God go… “ganesha keep home” was repeated over and over again and after they were gone “Ganesha bring” happened for a loooong time. So there he learnt his first lesson in life. Goodbyes are always difficult.

Some pics of the colony Ganesha procession before visargan

A Sunday for all religions

Tags

blogadda, ganesha pooja, ramdan, religious harmony, roja, tangy tuesday

Scene 1:

3:00 am – a girl quietly gets up so that she doesnt disturb anyone, steps into the bathroom for a early morning shower. Gets ready, does her morning Sehri, reads namaz and sleeps again

Scene 2:

6:30 am – another girl gets up, takes bath so that she is fresh to please her Gods, quitely sips her morning cup of tea and gets busy in cooking the various sweets, makes a flower rangoli in the entrance of the house, decorates the place where her friend Ganesha will reside for next 3 days.

Scene 3:

7:30 am – another lady gets ready with a lovely saree and flowers in her head and does her sunday round of the Church, lights a candle and brings one home.

9:00 am – the first, second and the whole family along with the third girl do the pooja for Ganapati. The candle that the third lady brought is also lighted in the pooja room.

The first girl and third lady are my live-in help and house maid respectively and yes the second girl is me.

My live in is a person who keeps fasts during Ramdan though she is a hindu by birth and she broke her Roja in the evening by the Ganpati Pooja prasad.

I cant tell you how proud I was of my household yesterday. It seemed to be my wish for India coming true, if only this whole thing could prevail all over. Why cant we have all the religions existing everywhere together.

Yes I did have problems in this intially, when my maid told us that she wants to keep roja, my mother-in-law did not take to it well but me and N sat with her and reasoned that what is the problem? Just because you have someone of another religion in you house does that make your own belief less stronger and till ones own belief is strong enough I dont think it matters what is happening, God is within oneself after all.

Then came a point where she was like ok she can keep the fast but she will not do namaz here and she will not enter the pooja room and this is a point where I gave me, no hypocrisy in my house. Either she stays here be normals as she is.. or we just let her go and after lots of debate and convincing my mil let her do keep the fast and I respect her for this. Its really difficult for the people from that generation to accept and I am glad an proud that she did.

So it was a sunday for all religions in the house hold and yes I made the visit to the Gurudwara to mark the last end of the sqaure.

It might sound cliche but “hindu muslim sikh issai indeed bhai bhai”

Amem!!

PS: thanks for all those heart warming comments in the previous post, that post is the next I promise

This Rakhi I remember

Tags

cousins, family, festivals, personal, raksha bandhan, school

My childhood… the growing up years and the rakhi days…

We are three sisters so technically there has never been a rakhi festival for us… but I still have fond memories of this  festival as growing up…

For me raksha bandhan

is the time for get togethers and the cousins ganging up to have loads of fun while the elders are gossiping

is the time when a yummy kheer would be made my badi mummy, the taste of which still lingers in my mouth… no one has been able to match that benchmark of kheer for me…i miss u badu mummy too much

is the time when we would look forward to the gifts and the money collected by tying rakhi to all cousins and then decide what is that we want to buy using that

is the time when one day before rakhi would be spent in school in a competitioon on which girl tied more rakhis and which boy got most…. and yes needless to say it was just till 6th or 7th 🙂

is the time when all girls would compete to get rakhi tied to the most popular boy and all girls would compete to get rakhi tied by the most popular girl

is the time when hours would be spent selecting rakhi and then later the archies cards to go with them

sigh i miss all this

Happy Raksha Bandhan to u all…