Cooking gains!

My stay at home right now is teaching me new things....like 'enjoying cooking'.
I have been able to experiment on some kinds of paranthas my mom taught, all independently now :D. Yesterday I experimented something beyond my mom's Indian kitchen :)
I tried out 'Pasta with white sauce' (I don't know the actual name), which turned out pretty much like the pastas we get in nice Italian restaurants. The recipe came from Bawa's recipes (along with my brother's directions :P)

Here are the links for my record and for anyone else willing to enjoy this:

1.Cooking the pasta (I used penne)

2. Making white sauce (refer the 'for the white sauce' section only)

3. After boiling the pasta and preparing the sauce:

- Fry some veggies (i used capsicum and peas) in adequate olive oil

- Pour the sauce in it and stir for a minute or so

- Pour the boiled pasta too and stir for about a minute while adding some oregano and basil seasoning along

And finally take it off the burner, and garnish with some more grated cheese! Its ready to be savoured now :D

And the act did not spare us a thought or a second to click a picture to flaunt it here.

The act was climaxed by a double scoop from 'Naturals'.
Just note the richness of white sauce which alarms me to think twice before making this stuff again and the combined meal of the day is making me walk slopes now......


But still the cooking has been enjoyed, relished and gained ! :D

Dream and Dreamer

Dear Dream

Resting in the restless eyes for years...
you are trying to figure your way out....to get exposed....
but please listen.....don't come out unshielded .....they will prick you....burst you....make you all shambles!
Let me build it on you...the cover to protect you....for you.....and then we'll take you to the world !

Dreamer

I don't know how much of this makes sense to many people, but i just felt like scribbling. While thinking all this also remembered one of my favorite poems I read in 9th standard "चाँद और कवि" by "दिनकर".

And the King departed...

The Aura has ascended, away from the physical world, up to the greater world which must have yearned for it since long. It belongs to the King who blessed several lives for 75 years, and will rule several hearts forever.

This King built his mighty empire of ideals, principles, genius, knowledge and loads of affection in all those great years. A month ago he left it in the hands of his 8 princesses, who took it to faraway corners of the country. And further we, the grand-kids, blessed with a tinge of his genius, continue to expand his empire.

In the calm town of 'Kolaras' near Gwalior, Nanaji grew up to be this wonderful lawyer 'Advocate Chintamani Jain'. Such was his genius, agility and impact that dawn of his 70s could not stop his practice. His growing storehouse of knowledge impressed me whenever I visited his libraries: the personal with myriad flavors ranging from PG Woodhouse and Jefferey Archer to Premchand and Maxim Gorki along with the pious Jain literature, and the Advocate's with racks and racks of books which all appeared same to me!

All the visits to nanaji's place had this in common: as soon as you enter the front graden, a loud, enthusiastic call, with that unique tone of kiddish affection was the first voice you heard; then 2 coarse, hard hands, caressed your cheeks, which was the first touch you recieved and finally the owner of this voice and hands soon planted a lovely kiss on your forehead. Irrespective of you being a teen or an adult, you could not resist the child in you! Can't help but miss it.....that feeling of assurance and protection.

I remember my latest meetings with him, as travel enthusiast Nanaji planned trips to visit his daughters and their children too! He could not feel prouder and happier looking at his grand -children ascending up their family and career ladders. As much he spoke with pride of his kids, the prouder I feel when I introduce myself as his granddaughter.

How much I write about him, his grandeur was unsurpassable. I sometimes secretly fantasized of my future family meeting him, while myself feeling proud of my own descent! But the sudden call of fate did not even let me see him for the last time. I now can just wish that our paths cross again in these cycles of life.

Though I knew it before, but still the truth has fallen upon me, and asking me to take moments out to caress the roots of your being, your self, and to take time off to get lost in the adorable lap of grandma or the experienced talks of grandpa....before they depart!

Mumbai->Bangalore, t->th

The long hands of fate have finally managed to pull me away from the '6 year old haven' and put me in this city, now called Bengaluru. Yes, I haven't been able to find any associating adjectives for this city yet. I have, knowingly or unknowingly, been trying to draw comparisons, and romanticizing about the 'enervated link'. When the link was flourishing, I sometimes just 'stood still' admiring the 'always running road' visible from the big balcony of my hall. While it kept telling me that life goes on and on....I moved on.
I no more belong to it, and now, I can empathize with all my friends and acquaintances who had had this experience.
New links are still in the process of development. A few things I could think of when I entered the new city: how careful I used to be while spelling the names of my gult friends, taking care of all the th's and a's. But now all t's are th's and I just feel lucky to have no t's in my name. It does help me escape the uncontrollable annoyance when one finds a modified version of one's most possessed identity. Silence of the night, and even the day, makes me nostalgic about the days when I wanted some peace around. I now yearn for some noise around, some more communication. Another one as expected is the weakened language links, which I have to learn to live with or to manage with.
This is all for the day 1 experiences of parting from the old and meeting the new, hoping to find the optimistic me here again!

PS: Just realized the first optimistic point. This experience helped me get back to my most satiating past time : writing :-)

Multitasking....

Of late I am just too bored of my laziness, this lethargic period.....which has gone to the extent that I am reluctant to think and write simultaneously [:(]...my last post was a sample where I tried to reflect on my mood using an old composition, which was not that relevant, but for my laziness, it worked. The lazy female in me was willing to just sit and think and think and think and then happily loose all the thoughts in eternity. And she finally came up with this idealess, messageless post since I was too keen on scribbling something in my blog.
Here this goes as some multitasking I am doing after ages it seems....thinking and writing simultaneously [:D]
I am again lost in ideas now....the past 2 months have been happening part of my life, which continues till date, could have been much more happening but for my laziness to react to them..... be it the surroundings, the city, the family, the friends, or the movie spree with mummy-papa, or the health and healthcare(be it for others or myself), or the few books i managed to read, or the change in year part of date...... I am just soo less energetic to act or react!

I want this lethargy to come to an end with this post, I wish it does as writing is something which brings some enthusiasm back to me, but yeah, only if this can be called some writing !

PS: I just recalled the writing and rewriting and more rewriting and writing I did for an application, which finally didn't work for me.

" पहचान "

ज़िन्दगी बहती चली जा रही है
दिशाहीन सी, बस हवा के संग
कभी हर दिशा में दिखता है रास्ता
तो कभी हर रास्ता बंद आता है नज़र
कभी लगता है कि वो सही हैं
तो कभी लगता है सही है ये मन
बस, इसी उलझन में खोती जा रही है वो पहचान
जो जब थी तो बदलना चाहती थी आज में
पर आज जब है तो फ़िर
बनना चाहती है वो बीता कल .......

Excellent philosophy of Life..........

Got a forward today with the title as above, and content as below:

Life is....

"Leaving the house in the morning, dressed in clothes that you bought on credit card for work,

driving through the traffic in a car that you are still paying for, putting in petrol that you cannot afford,

in order to get to the job that you hate but need so badly,

so that you can pay for the clothes, car, petrol

and the house that you leave empty the whole day,

in order to live in it"

Just realized this was my gtalk status for quite some time....and look, life is no more like this for me, at least now :P. I m actually staying+living in the house these days, and to tell you this is gr88. After the happenings of 5th November, and after an insight into so many seemingly positive after effects, i once again admire the satire in the statement above.

Am trying to read through the works of fate to figure out where is it trying to take me now, and taking my time for that. Talking about living in the present, the train has stopped at a platform with lots of paths to tread on.....leaving me wondering which to! The present looks good, but as I said, it carries all the fears.....actually.... its more of excitement now......with a tinge of adventure He has put in......nice flavors u have got!

One more point I always wondered about the mighty One there, but never mentioned at this place....we must learn it all from Him. He is an excellent Manager, a superb planner(but really ruthless sometimes)....mind you He would never let go His resources waste....so be ready to roll! Some might understand this today, others may someday......can't elaborate anymore :)